As the Reko project has developed over time, its complexity has grown to the point where it is hard to understand how everything gets built. This document aims to clarify the Reko build process.
For the tl;dr crowd:
To build the Reko solution for x86-64 versions of Windows, use the following command:
msbuild /p:Configuration=Release /p:Platform=x64 src/Reko-decompiler.sln
To build the solution for x86-64 Unix systems, use the following command:
msbuild /p:Configuration=UnixRelease /p:Platform=x64 src/Reko-decompiler.sln
The goal of the Reko build process is to generate a coherent set of executable files that work correctly when launched.
The bulk of the source code is written in C#, but because users have requested the Reko project to support extensions written in
C/C++, the build system had to be modified. Reko was initially developed with Visual Studio. The Reko solution contained a
mixture of csproj (C#) and vcxproj (C++) projects. Users requested support for MonoDevelop,
which didn't have support for vcxproj files. This was accomodated by switching to MonoDevelop specific cproj files, and
using advanced hackery to switch between "Windows" and "Unix" flavors of the solution.
At the time of writing (February 2018), we are regrettably seeing how MonoDevelop is withdrawing its mainline support for compiling C++, making it an obscure optional feature. This forced us to adopt a different approach, that sacrifices IDE convenience in order to support cross-platform compilation. It's an infelicitous situation that we hope will be remedied in the future.
To successfully build Reko, you will have to install a recent version of msbuild and CMake, along with
appropriate C# and C++ compilers. The current version of Reko is building with version 17.3 of msbuild
and CMake version 3.9. Msbuild assumes the .NET SDK is present, and currently Reko C# projects require
.NET 6.0 and C# 9. Your C++ compiler must be C++ 14 compliant. The .NET SDK is
available from Microsoft.
The Reko solution consists of the following projects:
Core.csproj-- classes and interfaces used by all projectsDecompiler.csproj-- the decompiler implementation.Gui.csproj-- support for graphical user interface- Front end drivers (in
src/Drivers)CmdLine.csproj-- the command line front end, which generates areko.exeexecutableWindowsDecompiler.csproj-- Windows Forms front end
- Plugins, supporting the various processor architectures, operating environment platforms, and executable image formats supported by Reko. These can be written in C# or C++.
- WiX installers -- only supported for Windows builds.
The solution projects form a directed acyclic graph (DAG) of project dependencies. Cyclical dependencies are forbidden.
Most C# projects will be compiled platform agnostically, using the Any CPU solution platform. However, all front end
drivers and Reko unit tests must be built for specific platforms. Currently, the Reko solution can generate 32-bit executables for
x86 and 64-bit executables for x86-64 processors. The names of the solution platforms are x86 and x64, following
the conventions used by Visual Studio solution files.
The currently supported solution configurations are Debug, Release, and UnixRelease. The Debug configuration
is not optimized and contains full debug symbols. The Release configuration is optimized and may not contain
full debug symbol support. The UnixRelease configuration is identical to the Release configuration except
that it excludes the WiX MSI installer scripts. The UnixRelease configuration is used to build on Unixy
platforms, where MSI installers are not supported nor relevant.
The build starts with the Core.csproj project. All C# projects will depend directly on this project.
C++ projects will depend on this project indirectly, via header files generated by hdrgen (see below). Core.csproj
is built platform neutrally, using the Any CPU platform.
Once Core.csproj is compiled, the projects in the src/Tools directory can be compiled. These tools are used to
assist the build by generating source code from XML files or C header files. In no particular order:
c2xml- parses C 99 header files and generates XML files complying with Reko's type library schema. This tool is used
to generate Reko metadata files from C header files to assist the decompilation process.xslt- hosts an XSL transform. This tool is used to transform XSL template files into source code. Notably, it is used to generate the menu system in the Gui project without a hard dependency on the GUI front end.hdrgen- generates a C++ header file,reko.h, by using .NET reflection on the the output ofCore.csprojproject. This C++ header file is consumed by C++ plugin projects at a later stage.
When the src/Tools have been built, the various plugins supported by Reko are built. Those plugins that are written in C#
or any other .NET language may have dependencies on Core.csproj and src/Tools, and optionally other plugins.
In order to support plugins written in C++, the Reko source tree has a src/Native directory. All C++ plugin projects will
be located here. The NativeProxy.csproj project is a stub project whose sole purpose is to start off the build of the
Native (i.e. non-managed) components of Reko. This sub-build is performed with CMake.
Any C++ plugin of even the smallest usefulness must access Reko's C# object model. This access is provided by the
src/Native/inc/reko.h header file, which is generated by the hdrgen tool as described above.
Separate solution build platforms are used for the supported x86 and x86-64 execution platforms. These solution platforms
are called x86 and x64, respectively.
The decompiler implementation and the GUI implementation are built using the Any CPU solution platforms.
Each one of the front end drivers is compiled for each supported solution platform: x86 and x64.
The Reko unit test suite is compiled for each supported solution platform: x86 and x64.