Building

Bitcoin Server (bs) is built from libbitcoin-server and the four libraries it depends on: libbitcoin-system, libbitcoin-database, libbitcoin-network and libbitcoin-node. Bitcoin Explorer (bx) is built from libbitcoin-explorer and the two libraries it depends on: libbitcoin-system and libbitcoin-network. Each repository's install script builds and installs its libraries in order, ending with its own.

1. Choosing a build#

Platform	Build system	Script	Page
Linux	Autotools or CMake	`install-gnu.sh`, `install-cmake.sh`, `install-presets.sh`	Linux
macOS	Autotools or CMake	`install-gnu.sh`, `install-cmake.sh`	macOS
Windows	Visual Studio	`build-msvc.cmd`	Windows

The three build systems produce the same bs and bx. CMake and autotools are equivalent on Linux and macOS. CMake presets select a configuration by name.

2. Supported platforms#

	x64	x86 (32-bit)	arm64	arm32	s390x (big-endian)
Linux	✔ CI	✔ CI	✔ CI	✔ CI	✔ CI
macOS	✔ CI	Obsolete	✔ CI	N/A	N/A
Windows	✔ CI	✔ CI	✔ CI	Obsolete	N/A

✔ CI: built and tested on every change.
Obsolete: no current toolchain targets it.
N/A: the platform does not exist on that architecture.

bx and the libraries build on every platform above. bs requires 64-bit. BSD and Cygwin are not tested.

Platform coverage compares platforms, compilers and build systems with Bitcoin Core.

3. Supported compilers#

Platform	Compilers	Build systems
Linux	GCC, Clang	Autotools, CMake, CMake presets
macOS	Apple Clang (Xcode)	Autotools, CMake
Windows	MSVC v145 (Visual Studio 2026), Clang (clang-cl, with Visual Studio)	Visual Studio, MSBuild

4. What every build needs#

A C++20 compiler. The versions tested in CI are listed in Toolchains.
Git, to fetch the libbitcoin sources.

Nothing else is required (see Build options).

5. Quick start#

On Linux or macOS, a static release build installed under ~/libbitcoin, optimized for the build machine:

$ git clone https://github.com/libbitcoin/libbitcoin-server
$ cd libbitcoin-server
$ ./builds/gnu/install-gnu.sh --prefix=$HOME/libbitcoin --build-config=release --build-link=static --hardware-optimized

The result is ~/libbitcoin/bin/bs. bx is built the same way from libbitcoin-explorer:

$ git clone https://github.com/libbitcoin/libbitcoin-explorer
$ cd libbitcoin-explorer
$ ./builds/gnu/install-gnu.sh --prefix=$HOME/libbitcoin --build-config=release --build-link=static --hardware-optimized

The result is ~/libbitcoin/bin/bx. On Windows, see Windows.

6. Hardware options#

By default bs and bx are built for the baseline instruction set of its architecture (AVX2 by default on Windows, which can be lowered). Options such as --enable-avx2 or --enable-shani make them faster on CPUs that have those instructions, and unable to run on CPUs that do not. --hardware-optimized enables all that the build machine supports, so its builds run only on CPUs with the same extensions. Run bs --hardware on the target machine to see what it supports, and see Build options.

7. Pages#

Linux, macOS and Windows: prerequisites and steps for each platform.
Build options: the install script options and the build options shared by all three build systems.
Toolchains: autotools, CMake and Visual Studio, and the compilers tested in CI.
Platform coverage: platforms, compilers and build systems compared with Bitcoin Core.
libbitcoin-build: the generator behind the build files, for maintainers.