FreeBSD Build Guide

Updated for FreeBSD 15.0

This guide describes how to build bitcoind, command-line utilities, and GUI on FreeBSD.

Preparation

1. Install Required Dependencies

Run the following as root to install the base dependencies for building.

bash

pkg install boost-libs cmake git libevent pkgconf

SQLite is required for the wallet:

bash

pkg install sqlite3

To build Bitcoin Core without the wallet, use -DENABLE_WALLET=OFF.

Cap'n Proto is needed for IPC functionality (see multiprocess.md):

bash

pkg install capnproto

Compile with -DENABLE_IPC=OFF if you do not need IPC functionality.

See dependencies.md for a complete overview.

2. Clone Bitcoin Repo

Now that git and all the required dependencies are installed, let's clone the Bitcoin Core repository to a directory. All build scripts and commands will run from this directory.

bash

git clone https://github.com/bitcoin/bitcoin.git

3. Install Optional Dependencies

GUI Dependencies

Qt6

Bitcoin Core includes a GUI built with the cross-platform Qt Framework. To compile the GUI, we need to install the necessary parts of Qt, the libqrencode and pass -DBUILD_GUI=ON. Skip if you don't intend to use the GUI.

bash

pkg install qt6-base qt6-tools

libqrencode

The GUI will be able to encode addresses in QR codes unless this feature is explicitly disabled. To install libqrencode, run:

bash

pkg install libqrencode

Otherwise, if you don't need QR encoding support, use the -DWITH_QRENCODE=OFF option to disable this feature in order to compile the GUI.

Notifications

ZeroMQ

Bitcoin Core can provide notifications via ZeroMQ. If the package is installed, support will be compiled in.

bash

pkg install libzmq4

Test Suite Dependencies

There is an included test suite that is useful for testing code changes when developing. To run the test suite (recommended), you will need to have Python 3 installed:

bash

pkg install python3 databases/py-sqlite3 net/py-pyzmq

Building Bitcoin Core

1. Configuration

There are many ways to configure Bitcoin Core, here are a few common examples:

Wallet and GUI:

This enables the GUI, assuming sqlite and qt are installed.

bash

cmake -B build -DBUILD_GUI=ON

Run cmake -B build -LH to see the full list of available options.

No Wallet or GUI

bash

cmake -B build -DENABLE_WALLET=OFF

2. Compile

bash

cmake --build build     # Append "-j N" for N parallel jobs.
ctest --test-dir build  # Append "-j N" for N parallel tests.