Building on Linux

This guide covers building libSkiaSharp.so for Linux distributions.

Prerequisites

.NET 8 SDK - Pinned via global.json
Python 3
Clang 14+
Make
Ninja (build system)

Downloading

The first step is to clone the mono/SkiaSharp repository:

bash

git clone https://github.com/mono/SkiaSharp.git
cd SkiaSharp

Google's depot_tools will be downloaded automatically during the build process.

Building

The easiest way to build is using the Cake build script:

bash

# Download dependencies and build native library
dotnet cake --target=externals-linux

# Or build everything including managed code
dotnet cake --target=everything

Manual Building

If you need more control, you can build manually:

Clone the skia submodule and sync dependencies:

bash

git submodule update --init --recursive
cd externals/skia
python3 tools/git-sync-deps

Generate build files:

bash

./bin/gn gen 'out/linux/x64' --args='
    is_official_build=true skia_enable_tools=false
    target_os="linux" target_cpu="x64"
    skia_use_icu=false skia_use_sfntly=false skia_use_piex=true
    skia_use_system_expat=false skia_use_system_freetype2=false 
    skia_use_system_libjpeg_turbo=false skia_use_system_libpng=false 
    skia_use_system_libwebp=false skia_use_system_zlib=false
    skia_enable_gpu=true
    extra_cflags=[ "-DSKIA_C_DLL" ]'

The latest arguments can be found in native/linux/build.cake

Build:
bash
```
ninja -C 'out/linux/x64' SkiaSharp
```

Customizing

To customize the build, modify the --args value:

Option	Example
Disable GPU	`skia_enable_gpu=false`
Static library	`is_static_skiasharp=true`
Custom compilers	`cc="gcc" cxx="g++" ar="ar"`
Extra C/C++ flags	`extra_cflags=[ "-O3" ]`
Extra linker flags	`extra_ldflags=[ "-fuse-ld=lld" ]`

Docker

Building for different Linux distributions is easier with Docker. The repository includes Dockerfiles for various configurations.

bash

# Build the Docker image
cd scripts/Docker/alpine/amd64
docker build --tag skiasharp-alpine .

# Run the build
docker run --rm --name skiasharp-alpine --volume $(pwd):/work skiasharp-alpine \
    /bin/bash ./bootstrapper.sh -t externals-linux --variant=alpine --buildarch=x64

# Fix file ownership if needed
chown -R $(id -u):$(id -g) .

See the scripts/Docker/ directory for available Dockerfiles.