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 dependencies for both GTK2 and GTK3 versions of RawTherapee:

Build-time dependencies for RawTherapee 4 and 5.0.

GTK+	Package	Version	Gentoo	Debian/Ubuntu	URL
GTK2, GTK3	BZIP2	bzip2>-1.0.4	app-arch/bzip2	libbz2-dev	http://www.bzip.org/
GTK2, GTK3	EXIV2	exiv2>=0.19	media-gfx/exiv2	libexiv2-dev	http://www.exiv2.org/
GTK2, GTK3	EXPAT	expat>=2.1.0	dev-libs/expat	libexpat-dev	http://expat.sourceforge.net/
GTK2, GTK3	FFTW3	fftw>=3.2.2	sci-libs/fftw	fftw-dev	http://fftw.org/
GTK2, GTK3	GCC	gcc>=4.9	sys-devel/gcc	build-essential	http://gcc.gnu.org/
GTK2, GTK3	GLIB2	glib-2.0>=2.24	dev-libs/glib	libglib2.0-dev	http://www.gtk.org/
GTK2, GTK3	GLIBMM	glibmm-2.4>=2.24	dev-cpp/glibmm	libglibmm-2.4-dev	http://www.gtkmm.org
GTK2	GTK+	gtk+-2.0>=2.24.18	x11-libs/gtk+	libgtk2.0-dev	http://www.gtk.org/
GTK3	GTK+	gtk+-3.16	x11-libs/gtk+	libgtk-3-dev	http://www.gtk.org/
GTK2	GTK2-Engines	gtk-engines-2.20.2	x11-themes/gtk-engines	gtk2-engines	http://www.gtk.org/
GTK2	GTKMM	gtkmm-2.4>=2.22	dev-cpp/gtkmm	libgtkmm-2.4-dev	http://www.gtkmm.org
GTK3	GTKMM	gtkmm-3.16	dev-cpp/gtkmm	libgtkmm-3.0-dev	http://www.gtkmm.org
GTK2, GTK3	JPEG	libjpeg>=6b	media-libs/jpeg	libjpeg-dev	http://libjpeg-turbo.virtualgl.org/ http://jpegclub.org/ http://www.ijg.org/
GTK2, GTK3	LCMS2	lcms>=2.6	media-libs/lcms	liblcms2-dev	http://www.littlecms.com/
GTK3	LENSFUN	lensfun>=0.2	media-libs/lensfun	liblensfun-dev	http://lensfun.sourceforge.net/
GTK2, GTK3	LIBCANBERRA	libcanberra>=0.29	media-libs/libcanberra	libcanberra-gtk3-dev	http://0pointer.de/lennart/projects/libcanberra/ (Linux only)
GTK2, GTK3	LIBIPTCDATA	libiptcdata>=1.0.2	media-libs/libiptcdata	libiptcdata-dev	http://libiptcdata.sourceforge.net
GTK2, GTK3	PNG	libpng>=1.2.44	media-libs/libpng	libpng-dev	http://www.libpng.org/
GTK2, GTK3	SIGC	sigc++-2.0	dev-libs/libsigc++	libsigc++-2.0-dev	http://libsigc.sourceforge.net/
GTK2, GTK3	TIFF	libtiff>=3.9.4	media-libs/tiff	libtiff-dev	http://www.remotesensing.org/libtiff/
GTK2, GTK3	ZLIB	zlib>=1.2.3	sys-libs/zlib	zlib1g-dev	http://www.zlib.net/

To compile the outdated RawTherapee 3 you will need these:

Build-time dependencies for RawTherapee 3

Package	Version	Gentoo	Debian/Ubuntu	URL
LCMS1	lcms<=1.99	media-libs/lcms	liblcms1-dev	http://www.littlecms.com/

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 legacy "gtk2" 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 dev branch (or checkout a "gtk3" release tag). The dependencies below are only for GTK3.

sudo pacman -S bzip2 exiv2 expat fftw glib2 glibmm gtk3 gtkmm3 lcms2 lensfun libcanberra libiptcdata libjpeg-turbo libpng libsigc++ libtiff zlib

CentOS 7.1

CentOS 7.1 does not support a recent enough version of GTK3, so you can only compile the gtk2 branch. 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 supports GTK3 from version 22, use the dev branch (or checkout a "gtk3" release tag). The dependencies below are only for GTK3. If you are using Fedora version 21 or older, use the legacy gtk2 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 lensfun-devel libcanberra-devel libiptcdata-devel libjpeg-turbo-devel libpng-devel libsigc++20-devel libtiff-devel zlib-devel

Gentoo

Gentoo supports GTK3, use the dev branch (or checkout a "gtk3" release tag). The dependencies below are only for GTK3.

sudo emerge -uva app-arch/bzip2 dev-cpp/gtkmm:3.0 dev-libs/expat media-gfx/exiv2 media-libs/lcms media-libs/lensfun 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 42.2 and Tumbleweed support GTK3, use the dev branch (or checkout a "gtk3" release tag). The dependencies below are only for GTK3. Note: openSUSE 42.1 supports GTK+ 3.16.7 but compilation fails as the sigc++-2.0>=2.4 requirement is not met. If you are using openSUSE version 42.1 or older, use the legacy gtk2 branch.

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 dev branch (or checkout a "gtk3" release tag). The dependencies below are only for GTK3.

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, use the dev branch (or checkout a "gtk3" release tag). The dependencies below are only for GTK3. Older versions of Ubuntu either do not support GTK3 at all, or the version of GTK3 they ship is not recent enough (RawTherapee GTK3 support requires GTK3 version 3.16 or newer), meaning you must use the legacy gtk2 branch which uses GTK2.

Ubuntu 17.10, 17.04 and 16.10

Use the dev branch (or checkout a "gtk3" release tag). The dependencies below are only for GTK3.

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 liblensfun-dev libpng-dev libsigc++-2.0-dev libtiff5-dev zlib1g-dev

Ubuntu 16.04 LTS and 15.10

Use the dev branch (or checkout a "gtk3" release tag). The dependencies below are only for GTK3.

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 liblensfun-dev libpng12-dev libsigc++-2.0-dev libtiff5-dev zlib1g-dev

Ubuntu 15.04, 14.10, 14.04 LTS

Use the legacy gtk2 branch. The dependencies below are only for the gtk2 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

Two ways to continue

There are two ways you can now continue: either use the Bash script which compiles RawTherapee for you (recommended), or do so manually.

Compiling: The Automatic Way

This is the recommended way of compiling RawTherapee as it is fast, simple and fool-proof. It relies on a Bash script which downloads the latest RawTherapee source code and compiles it in a way which is optimized for your CPU. The compiled builds are ready for use. The script does not check for build-time dependencies, so be sure to read the Dependencies section before using the script. The compiled builds are standalone, meaning that you can keep several versions of RawTherapee at the same time simply by renaming the build folders so that creating a new build does not overwrite the previous build, which happens by default.

Run the script as a normal user, not as root!

Open a terminal, get the script, make it executable, and run it:

cd ~
wget https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Beep6581/RawTherapee/dev/tools/build-rawtherapee
chmod +x build-rawtherapee
./build-rawtherapee

If everything goes well, the script will terminate with the message, "To run rawtherapee type: ...".

To update RawTherapee if you previously compiled it using this script, just re-run the script. That's it.

Compiling: The Manual Way

The recommended way of compiling RawTherapee is by using the script - see Compiling: The Automatic Way. If you want to learn how to compile manually, read on.

In order to keep your "home" folder clean when manually compiling multiple programs (i.e. when not using your distribution's package manager) and for this manual compilation tutorial to maintain compatibility with the automatic compilation script, you will create the folder ~/programs/ which will contain all RawTherapee-related source code in the ~/programs/code-rawtherapee folder, and the compiled build in the ~/programs/rawtherapee folder. You can use the same scheme when compiling other programs.

Clone the source

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

mkdir -p ~/programs
git clone https://github.com/Beep6581/RawTherapee ~/programs/code-rawtherapee
cd ~/programs/code-rawtherapee

Choose a branch

• Features are developed on their own feature branches.
• Development happens in the dev branch. Feature branches are merged into the dev branch when they're ready. The dev branch is unstable.
• Releases are tagged in the releases branch.

Checkout the latest tag if you want the most stable code. To see all available tags, type:

git tag

Checkout the dev branch or some other feature branch if you want to test the latest bleeding-edge code. To see all available branches, type:

git branch -a

Checking out is done via the "git checkout" command. To checkout a tag or a branch, type:

git checkout <tag or branch>

RawTherapee uses GTK+ for the user interface and requires GTK+ version 3.16 or newer. If your system does not support version 3.16 or newer then you must checkout the 5.0-r1-gtk2 tag. Our GTK2 support has officially ended on 2 February 2017 - update your system.

Note: Compiling old versions of RawTherapee 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 ~/programs/code-rawtherapee/build/release folder, and then you will move this folder to ~/programs/rawtherapee

CMake

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

One of: release (default), relwithdebinfo or debug.

This controls whether the build will favor faster execution time or more verbose debugging output.

The "debug" and "relwithdebinfo" builds 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. The "debug" build is the slowest but generates the most detailed information. The "relwithdebinfo" build is almost as fast as a "release" build and generates often sufficient information, though not as detailed as a "debug" build. The "release" build will not provide any useful information when it crashes, but does contain many speed optimizations resulting in a program that works several times faster than the "debug" build would. For normal use, make a "release" or "relwithdebinfo" build. 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!). We prefer stack backtraces from debug builds than from relwithdebinfo ones.

To make a "release" type build, set: -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE="release"

USE_OLD_CXX_ABI

ON or OFF (default).

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 using 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, set: -DUSE_OLD_CXX_ABI="ON"

CACHE_NAME_SUFFIX

The CACHE_NAME_SUFFIX options sets the suffix of the cache and config folder names the compiled RawTherapee build will use. See the File Paths article for an explanation of what those are.

For stable releases (if you checkout the "releases" branch) use -DCACHE_NAME_SUFFIX=""

For development builds (if you checkout the "dev" branch or any branch other than "releases") use -DCACHE_NAME_SUFFIX="5-dev"

PROC_TARGET_NUMBER

From 0 (default) to 9.

The PROC_TARGET_NUMBER option sets which CPU type to optimize for.

If building for yourself, use "2". It means "native", so the optimizations will be automatically detected for your CPU and RawTherapee will perform as fast as possible on your CPU. It might not run at all on older or other CPU architectures.

If building for distribution (for other people), use "1". It means "generic", so only optimizations supported by most CPUs will be used, meaning the build can be downloaded and used by anyone, though it won't benefit from the best optimizations possible for the user's CPU.

For more info, see the file "ProcessorTargets.cmake" in the cloned repository.

To make a build using "native" optimizations, set: -DPROC_TARGET_NUMBER="2"

BUILD_BUNDLE

ON or OFF.

Forced to "ON" for Windows and macOS. Optional in Linux where it is "OFF" by default.

If set to ON, the program will be built into the DATADIR folder, otherwise it will be installed relative to CMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX which would typically be system-wide.

BUNDLE_BASE_INSTALL_DIR

Use an absolute path.

The program will be built into this folder.

For example, set it to: -DBUNDLE_BASE_INSTALL_DIR="$HOME/programs/rawtherapee"

If it is not set, the default is to use ${CMAKE_BINARY_DIR}/${CMAKE_BUILD_TYPE}

LENSFUNDBDIR

Unset by default.

The LENSFUNDBDIR option permits to locate the lensfun database in the specified directory. It can be unset, absolute or relative.

When unset, Lensfun uses its own logic to find the database. This is the recommended option if you have Lensfun installed system-wide and want to use it.

You can set it to a relative or absolute path if you want to use a custom lensfun database.

If building a bundle, it is relative to the bundle's root folder, otherwise it is relative to DATADIR, i.e. ${CMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX}/share/rawtherapee

OPTION_OMP

ON (default) or OFF.

Build with OpenMP support when enabled, which enables multithreading and makes RawTherapee much faster.

WITH_LTO

ON or OFF (default).

Build with link-time optimizations when enabled, which may make RawTherapee run a little faster.

WITH_PROF

ON or OFF (default).

For debugging purposes. Generate extra code to write profile information suitable for the analysis program gprof.

WITH_SAN

OFF (default) or one of various other options.

For debugging purposes. Allows enabling various sanitizers to help detect program issues.

See GCC manual's Program Instrumentation Options chapter for more information.

WITH_SYSTEM_KLT

ON or OFF (default).

Build using system KLT library when ON, otherwise use KLT files bundled with RawTherapee.

The Kanade–Lucas–Tomasi (KLT) feature tracker is used by the Auto Distortion Correction tool.

WITH_BENCHMARK

ON or OFF (default).

Build with timing functions enabled to benchmark performance.

Make

Find out how many threads your CPU supports. This only influences the compilation speed, it has no influence over how fast the compiled RawTherapee build runs. To find out how many threads your CPU supports, run this in a terminal:

nproc --all

It will return a number. Use this number for the --jobs parameter below.

Compile:

cd ~/programs/code-rawtherapee
rm -rf build
mkdir build && cd build

cmake \
    -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE="release"  \
    -DCACHE_NAME_SUFFIX="5-dev" \
    -DPROC_TARGET_NUMBER="2" \
    -DBUILD_BUNDLE="ON" \
    -DBUNDLE_BASE_INSTALL_DIR="$HOME/programs/rawtherapee" \
    -DOPTION_OMP="ON" \
    -DWITH_LTO="OFF" \
    -DWITH_PROF="OFF" \
    -DWITH_SAN="OFF" \
    -DWITH_SYSTEM_KLT="OFF" \
    ..

make --jobs=4
make install

Run RawTherapee

To run RawTherapee:

~/programs/rawtherapee/rawtherapee

Or to run the CLI version:

~/programs/rawtherapee/rawtherapee-cli

The source code repository is in ~/programs/code-rawtherapee and the compiled program is in ~/programs/rawtherapee

You can safely delete ~/programs/code-rawtherapee 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 when you want to update.

Update RawTherapee

Every time you want to update RawTherapee to the latest code available, just do the following:

cd ~/programs/code-rawtherapee
git pull

Then repeat the Make step above.