Building from Source

Note

The default build target is a 32-bit library, since Valve has dropped support for 64-bit HLDS.

Requirements

Tool	Purpose
Git	To clone the repository with submodules
CMake 3.28+	Configure the build
Ninja	Build backend
GCC or Clang (gcc/g++ or clang/clang++)	Host compiler
Zig	Only for cross builds (it ships its own libc)
Visual Studio 2015+ (C/C++ tools)	Windows native builds only

Note

The build never installs anything itself. The build.sh helper probes the environment and prints distro-specific install hints when something is missing.

Getting the Source

git clone --recursive https://github.com/yapb/yapb
cd yapb

The submodules (crlib, linkage, mbedtls) are required. If you already cloned without --recursive, run git submodule update --init --recursive.

Building with build.sh (Recommended)

build.sh is a helper script that wraps CMake presets:

# native dev build (host compiler, no zig needed)
./build.sh

# cross build for a specific target via zig
./build.sh --arch=linux-x86

# native build with clang, tuned for this machine, 8 parallel jobs
./build.sh -c=clang --native -j=8

Available options:

Option	Description
--arch=<preset>	Build preset (default: release). Cross presets need zig on PATH
-c= / --compiler=	Host C/C++ compiler for native builds (gcc or clang)
-j= / --jobs=	Parallel build jobs (default: ninja auto-detects)
--native	Tune for this machine (-march=native)
--skip-checks	Skip environment probing
-D<Var>=<Val>	Extra CMake defines forwarded to the configure step

Building with CMake Directly

The presets mirror the CI matrix, so you can drive CMake yourself:

# native development build
cmake --preset release
cmake --build --preset release

Preset groups:

• Local presets (host compiler, no zig needed): release, dist, linux-amd64-asan, linux-x86-asan
• Cross presets (need zig on PATH): ci-linux-x86, ci-linux-amd64, ci-linux-x86-nosimd, ci-linux-arm64, ci-linux-riscv64, ci-apple-amd64, ci-windows-x86-clang, ci-windows-amd64
• CI-only presets (their runners, not for local use): ci-apple-arm64, ci-windows-x86, ci-windows-x86-clang-cl, ci-windows-x86-msvc-xp

See CMakePresets.json for the full matrix.

Building on Linux

1. Install the requirements:

   sudo apt update
   sudo apt install git cmake ninja-build gcc g++ gcc-multilib g++-multilib

   Note

   The default target is x86 (32-bit), so the host compiler needs multilib/32-bit libc support. Without multilib, cross-build through zig instead: ./build.sh --arch=linux-x86

2. Get the source (see above)

3. Build:

   ./build.sh

4. You’re done! The compiled library is located at release/yapb.so (each preset builds into a directory named after itself)

Building on Windows

1. Install Visual Studio with the C/C++ workload

2. Get the source (see above)

3. Either open vc/yapb.sln in Visual Studio and build, or use the cross presets through Zig from a bash shell (Git Bash/WSL):

   ./build.sh --arch=windows-x86-clang

4. You’re done! The compiled library is located at release/yapb.dll for native builds, or windows-x86-clang/yapb.dll for the cross preset

Build Options

These CMake options can be passed with -D<Var>=<Val> (or through build.sh -D<Var>=<Val>):

Option	Default	Description
64BIT	OFF	Build as 64-bit binary
NATIVE	OFF	Configure compiler for a native machine build (-march=native)
WINXP	OFF	Configure MSVC build for a Windows XP compatible binary
NOSIMD	OFF	Disable all SIMD/NEON optimizations
STATIC_LINKENT	OFF	Use predefined entity link list
LTO	ON	Enable link-time optimization
SANITIZE	(empty)	Enable sanitizers, e.g. address or address,undefined (dev builds)
WITH_TLS	ON	Enable HTTPS support via vendored mbedtls