// file : INSTALL.cli // license : MIT; see accompanying LICENSE file " One of the primary goals of the \c{build2} toolchain is to provide a uniform build interface across all the platforms and compilers. As a result, if you already have the toolchain installed and would like to upgrade to a newer version, then there is a single set of \l{#upgrade upgrade instructions} for all the platforms. If, however, you need to install the toolchain for the first time, then it has to be bootstrapped and that process is platform-specific. The rest of this section discusses a few general bootstrap considerations and then directs you to the appropriate platform-specific instructions. In the rest of this guide we use the \c{$} symbol for a UNIX shell prompt and \c{>} for the Windows command prompt. Similarly, we use \c{\\} for UNIX command line continuations and \c{^} for Windows. Usually you should be able to copy and paste (sans the prompt) example commands in order to execute them but sometimes you might need to change a thing or two (for example, replace \c{X.Y.Z} with the actual version). Once we are able to use the \c{build2} toolchain, the command line interface becomes regular and we usually only show the UNIX version of the commands. In this case making a Windows version is a simple matter of adjusting paths and, if used, line continuations. The \c{build2} toolchain requires a C++14 compiler. From the commonly-used options, GCC 4.9, Clang 3.7, and MSVC 14 (2015) Update 3 or any later versions of these compilers should work. \N|Note that the C++ compiler that you use to build the \c{build2} toolchain and the one that you will use to build your projects need not be the same. For example, if you are using MSVC 12 (2013) (which cannot build \c{build2}), it is perfectly fine to get a minimal MinGW toolchain and use that to build \c{build2}; you will still be able to use MSVC 12 to build your own code.| At the high level, the bootstrap process involves the following 5 steps. \dl| \li|\b{1. Bootstrap, Phase 1}\n First, a minimal build system executable is built using provided shell scripts/batch files or a GNU makefile. The result is only guaranteed to be able to rebuild the build system itself.| \li|\n\b{2. Bootstrap, Phase 2}\n Then, the build system is rebuilt with static libraries. The result is only guaranteed to be able to build the build system and the package manager.| \li|\n\b{3. Stage}\n At this step the build system and package manager are built with shared libraries and then staged.| \li|\n\b{4. Install}\n Next, the staged tools are used to build and install the entire toolchain from the package repository with the package manager.| \li|\n\b{5. Clean}\n Finally, the staged at step 3 tools are uninstalled.|| The end result of the bootstrap process is the installed toolchain as well as the package manager configuration (created at step 4) that can be used to upgrade to newer versions. \N|You can skip step 4 and instead install at step 3 if for some reason you prefer not to build from packages (for example, because the machine is offline).| For Windows, if you are using either MSVC, Clang, or MinGW, continue with \l{#bootstrap-windows Bootstrapping on Windows}. If using WSL, MSYS, or Cygwin, then instead refer to \l{#bootstrap-unix Bootstrapping on UNIX}. For Mac OS X, continue with \l{#bootstrap-macosx Bootstrapping on Mac OS X}. For other UNIX-like operating systems (GNU/Linux, FreeBSD, etc; this also includes WSL, MSYS, and Cygwin), continue with \l{#bootstrap-unix Bootstrapping on UNIX}. "