Compilation and Installation

LibRaw is distributed in the form of source codes. For further use, they should be compiled (and, if desired, placed into system folders with libraries and include-files).

Unix Systems (FreeBSD, Linux, Mac OS X)

To build the library, you will need a working C++ compiler (gcc 3+ and clang 2+ are OK) and the make utility.

Additional libraries (optional):

  • zlib (used to decode deflated DNGs)
  • libjasper (used to decode RED files)
  • libjpeg8 (used to decode lossy DNGs and several old Kodak cameras)

LibRaw has been tested on 32- and 64-bit Unix systems working on x86- (and AMD64-) compatible processors. Building and work on other architectures have not been tested.

Compilation of Library and Examples

Unpack the downloaded distribution package.

        tar xzvf LibRaw-X.YY.tar.gz

For GitHub downloads (clones), perform ./configure script generation via

        autoreconf --install

Go to LibRaw directory and run ./configure and make: 

cd LibRaw-X.YY
./configure # with optional args
make

As a result, you will compile

  • Library libraw.a in the lib/ folder
  • Examples in the bin/ folder (source codes of examples are in the samples/ folder).

In the current version, only static libraries are built:

  • libraw.a: non-thread-safe version
  • libraw_r.a: thread-safe

Build parameters

./configure script have some non-standard parameters:

--enable-openmp
--disable-openmp
Enable/disable OpenMP support if compiler supports it. OpenMP is enabled by default.
--enable-lcms
--disable-lcms
Enable/disable LCMS color engine support. If enabled, ./configure will try to find lcms library. Both LCMS-1.x and LCMS-2.x are supported LCMS support is enabled by default
--enable-examples
--disable-examples
Enables/disables examples compilation and installation. Enabled by default

Installation and Usage

To install the library, run

    sudo make install

It will place the libraries in /usr/local/lib, the include-files in /usr/local/include (subfolder of libraw) and LibRaw samples to /usr/local/bin. You can override installation path by using ./configure script.
To use LibRaw, add the following parameters to the compiler call (when building your own projects):

  • Path to include-files: -I/usr/local/include
  • Path to libraries: -L/usr/local/lib
  • Library: -lraw (ordinary version) or -lraw_r (thread-safe version).

Windows: Building under Cygwin

Building and installation are completely similar to building and installation under Unix systems.

Windows: Native Building

Building under Windows has three steps:

  • Unpack the distribution package (if you have got no tar+gzip, take the LibRaw distribution package in the .ZIP format) and go to folder LibRaw-X.YYY.
  • Set the environment parameters so that the compiler/linker would find the libraries and include-files. For Visual C++, this is done by running vcvars32.bat.
  • Run
    nmake -f Makefile.msvc

You may need to edit Makefile.msvc to provide libjpeg/zlib/libjasper paths to INCLUDE/LIB.

If all paths are set correctly and the include-files/libraries have been found, then the following will be compiled:

  • Library libraw_static.lib in folder lib
  • Dynamic library bin/libraw.dll and linking library for it lib/libraw.lib
  • Examples in folder bin/.

Only the thread-safe library is built under Win32, but it can be used with non-threaded applications as well. All examples are linked with the dynamic library (DLL); if static linking is necessary, one should link applications with library libraw_static.lib and set the preprocessor option /DLIBRAW_NODLL during compilation.

Windows-version compiles without LCMS support for now.

During building of DLL, all public functions are exported; further, the exported subset may be reduced.

Unfortunately, paths to include/ libraries depend on the way Visual C (or other compiler) is installed; therefore, it is impossible to specify some standard paths in Makefile.msvc.

Windows Installation

No installation under Windows is supported. It is assumed that all DLLs will be supplied together with the software using them (and this software will perform the installation). Accordingly, in building of programs using LibRaw, the paths to libraries, DLLs, and include-files should be specified manually.