Linux

This page details instructions for compiling RawTherapee on GNU/Linux systems. There are also instructions for compiling on Windows and OS X.

When in doubt, join us on IRC and ask a human!

Dependencies
To compile RawTherapee your system will need a set of tools. They are called dependencies, and here is a list of them for the two main branches, "master" which uses GTK+ 2 (GTK2) and "gtk3" which uses GTK+ 3 (GTK3):

To compile the outdated RawTherapee 3 you will need these:

In order to install all these dependencies, you will need to open a console and paste the code from the appropriate section into the console. Note that these code snippets include the GTK3 dependencies if available, so if you want to compile the "master" branch which uses GTK2 then replace the GTK3 dependencies with GTK2 ones as described in the list above.

Arch
The latest Arch supports GTK3, use the  branch. The dependencies below are only for the  branch. sudo pacman -S bzip2 exiv2 expat fftw glib2 glibmm gtk3 gtkmm3 lcms2 libcanberra libiptcdata libjpeg-turbo libpng libsigc++ libtiff zlib

CentOS 7.1
CentOS 7.1 does not support a recent enough version of GTK3. As CentOS 7.1 does not seem to have the Clearlooks GTK2 theme engine, you will either need to install some other GTK2 theme engine, or after installing RawTherapee go to "Preferences > General > Default Theme" and enable "Use system theme". sudo yum install bzip2-devel cmake curl exiv2-devel expat-devel fftw-devel gcc-c++ git glibmm24-devel gtk2-devel gtkmm24-devel lcms2-devel libjpeg-turbo-devel libcanberra-devel libiptcdata-devel libpng-devel libtiff-devel sigc++20-devel zlib-devel

Fedora
Fedora 22 and 23 support GTK3, older versions do not, use the  branch on those versions of Fedora. The dependencies below are only for the  branch. sudo dnf install bzip2-devel cmake exiv2-devel expat-devel fftw-devel gcc-c++ glib2-devel glibmm24-devel gtk3-devel gtkmm30-devel lcms2-devel libcanberra-devel libiptcdata-devel libjpeg-turbo-devel libpng-devel libsigc++20-devel libtiff-devel zlib-devel

Gentoo
Gentoo supports GTK3, use the  branch. The dependencies below are only for the  branch. sudo emerge -uva app-arch/bzip2 dev-cpp/gtkmm:3.0 dev-libs/expat media-gfx/exiv2 media-libs/lcms media-libs/libcanberra media-libs/libiptcdata media-libs/libjpeg-turbo media-libs/libpng media-libs/tiff net-misc/curl sci-libs/fftw sys-libs/zlib x11-libs/gtk+:3

openSUSE
openSUSE Tumbleweed supports GTK3, older versions do not. Use the  branch on Tumbleweed. The dependencies below are only for the  branch. Note: openSUSE 42.1 supports GTK+ 3.16.7 but compilation fails as the sigc++-2.0>=2.4 requirement is not met. sudo zypper in cmake fftw3-devel gcc-c++ glib2-devel glibmm2-devel gtk3-devel gtkmm3-devel libbz2-devel libcanberra-devel libexpat-devel libiptcdata-devel libjpeg-devel liblcms2-devel libpng-devel libsigc++2-devel libtiff-devel zlib-devel

Sabayon
Sabayon supports GTK3, use the  branch. The dependencies below are only for the  branch. sudo equo install app-arch/bzip2 dev-cpp/gtkmm:3.0 dev-libs/expat dev-util/cmake media-gfx/exiv2 media-libs/lcms media-libs/libcanberra media-libs/libiptcdata media-libs/libjpeg-turbo media-libs/libpng media-libs/tiff net-misc/curl sci-libs/fftw sys-libs/zlib x11-libs/gtk+:3

Ubuntu
Ubuntu as of version 15.10 (Wily Werewolf) supports GTK3 so you can and should use the  branch. Older versions of Ubuntu either do not support  at all or the version of GTK3 they ship is not recent enough (the   branch requires a minimum GTK3 version of 3.16), meaning you must use the   branch which uses GTK2.

Ubuntu 16.10
Use the  branch. The dependencies below are only for the  branch. sudo apt update sudo apt install build-essential cmake curl git libcanberra-gtk3-dev libexiv2-dev libexpat-dev libfftw3-dev libglibmm-2.4-dev libgtk-3-dev libgtkmm-3.0-dev libiptcdata0-dev libjpeg-dev liblcms2-dev libpng-dev libsigc++-2.0-dev libtiff5-dev zlib1g-dev

Ubuntu 16.04 LTS and 15.10
Use the  branch. The dependencies below are only for the  branch. sudo apt-get update sudo apt-get install build-essential cmake curl git libbz2-dev libcanberra-gtk3-dev libexiv2-dev libexpat-dev libfftw3-dev libglibmm-2.4-dev libgtk-3-dev libgtkmm-3.0-dev libiptcdata0-dev libjpeg8-dev liblcms2-dev libpng12-dev libsigc++-2.0-dev libtiff5-dev zlib1g-dev

Ubuntu 15.04, 14.10, 14.04 LTS
Use the  branch. The dependencies below are only for the  branch. sudo apt-get update sudo apt-get install build-essential cmake curl git libbz2-dev libcanberra-gtk-dev libexiv2-dev libexpat-dev libfftw3-dev libglibmm-2.4-dev libgtk2.0-dev libgtkmm-2.4-dev libiptcdata0-dev libjpeg8-dev liblcms2-dev libpng12-dev libsigc++-2.0-dev libtiff5-dev zlib1g-dev

RawTherapee requires GCC version 4.9 or higher. Ubuntu 14.04 LTS ships with GCC version 4.8.2 which is too old - to get 4.9, follow these steps: http://askubuntu.com/questions/466651/how-do-i-use-the-latest-gcc-on-ubuntu-14-04

Ubuntu 13.10, 13.04, 12.10, 12.04 LTS, 11.10
These versions of Ubuntu are badly outdated. The code below used to work but it may stop working at any moment. Upgrade your operating system.

As these versions of Ubuntu only support GCC-4.8.1 and older, the latest commit you will be able to compile is commit b343b9a7 from 2015-12-29 - newer versions will not compile. sudo apt-get update sudo apt-get install build-essential cmake curl git libbz2-dev libcanberra-gtk-dev libexiv2-dev libexpat-dev libfftw3-dev libglibmm-2.4-dev libgtk2.0-dev libgtkmm-2.4-dev libiptcdata0-dev libjpeg8-dev liblcms2-dev libpng12-dev libsigc++-2.0-dev libtiff5-dev zlib1g-dev

Ubuntu 10.10 and 11.04
These versions of Ubuntu are badly outdated. The code below used to work but it may stop working at any moment. Upgrade your operating system.

sudo apt-add-repository ppa:dasprid/rawtherapee sudo apt-get update sudo apt-get install cmake curl git libbz2-dev libcanberra-gtk-dev libexiv2-dev libexpat-dev libglibmm-2.4-dev libgtk2.0-dev libgtkmm-2.4-dev libiptcdata0-dev libjpeg62 liblcms2-dev libnm-glib2 libpng12-dev libsigc++-2.0-dev libtiff4-dev zlib1g-dev

Compiling: The Manual Way
This section describes compiling RawTherapee manually.

Clone the source
First, you need to clone RawTherapee's source code repository. Bring up your console and run this:

git clone https://github.com/Beep6581/RawTherapee ~/repo-rt cd ~/repo-rt

Choose a branch
New features and bug fixes are made on their own branches. Once tested, those branches are merged into the "master" branch which uses GTK+ 2. About once a week, the "master" branch is merged into the "gtk3" branch which uses the newer and nicer GTK+ 3.

To see all available branches, type: git branch -a

To choose a branch, type: git checkout We recommend you use the " " branch if your system supports GTK+ 3.16 or newer, or the " " branch if it does not.

Note: compiling RawTherapee version 3, or any version older than that, will fail on a modern system, as you will be missing the old dependencies.

Compile RawTherapee
Now you will make an out-of-source compilation of RawTherapee, it will be built into the ~/repo-rt/build/release folder, and then you will move this folder to your home directory and rename it to "rt", so make sure there is no ~/rt folder already!

There are a few compilation settings you need to be aware of, you will pass these to CMake using the -D option as described below:


 * BUILD_TYPE
 * You must specify the  when building RawTherapee. You can set the   value to " " or " ". The "debug" build will let you  get a useful stack-backtrace if RawTherapee crashes while running through GDB which you can then submit to us so we can find the problem and fix it, but it will not be speed-optimized so it will run slowly. The "release" build will not provide any useful information when it crashes, but does contain many speed optimizations resulting in a program that works many times faster than the "debug" version would! For normal use, go for "release". If you find a reproducible bug, then make a "debug" build and send us a stack-backtrace (or fix it yourself and send us the patch!).
 * To make a "release" type build, write:
 * Replace "release" by "debug" as needed.


 * USE_OLD_CXX_ABI
 * When compiling a program, one must use the same conventions as those used by the libraries which that program relies upon, otherwise compilation (linking) will fail. Generally one does not need to concern oneself with this, but we are now at a time when GCC4 is being phased out by GCC5, each by default uses a convention incompatible with the other, and so this issue is relevant. If the libraries on your system have been compiled using GCC5, they probably use a standard called C++11. This means that your RawTherapee build must use the same standard, which is the case by default. However if despite using GCC5 your libraries were built using the older C++03 standard, then RawTherapee must be set to use the same, and this is when you would set "USE_OLD_CXX_ABI" to "ON":
 * To enable USE_OLD_CXX_ABI, write:


 * CACHE_NAME_SUFFIX
 * The CACHE_NAME_SUFFIX options dictates the suffix of the cache and config folder names the compiled RawTherapee build will use.
 * See the File Paths article for a full explanation.


 * PROC_TARGET_NUMBER
 * The PROC_TARGET_NUMBER option sets which CPU type to optimize for. "2" is a safe choice because it means "native", so the optimizations will be automatically detected for your CPU.
 * For more info, see the file "ProcessorTargets.cmake" in the cloned repository.
 * To make a build using "native" optimizations, write:

Finally, you need to find out how many threads your CPU supports. This will make compilation faster but it will have no effect on the speed of running RawTherapee.
 * Threads
 * To find out how many threads your CPU supports, run:
 * Then replace the number in "-j8" below with this number.
 * Then replace the number in "-j8" below with this number.

Now you are ready to compile: cd ~/repo-rt rm -rf build; make clean; ./clean mkdir build && cd build cmake -DCMAKE_CXX_FLAGS="-std=c++11 -Wno-deprecated-declarations -Wno-unused-result" \ -DWITH_LTO="OFF" \ -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE="release" \ -DPROC_TARGET_NUMBER="2" \ -DBUILD_BUNDLE="ON" \ -DBINDIR="." \     -DDATADIR="." \     -DCACHE_NAME_SUFFIX="4" .. make -j8 install mv release ~/rt

Run RawTherapee
To run RawTherapee: ~/rt/rawtherapee

The source code repository is in  and the compiled program is in

You can safely delete  if you so wish. The compiled program will still work, but then you will have to redo all the above steps if you want to update. Rather, leave the repository intact so that you can do the next step in a week or a month's time.

Update RawTherapee
Every time you want to update your RawTherapee to the latest code available, just do the following and then repeat the Compile RawTherapee step above: <pre style="white-space: pre-wrap">cd ~/repo-rt git pull