Chapter 4. Configuring kdesrc-build

The configuration file starts with the global options, specified like the following:

global
option-name option-value
[...]
end global

It is then followed by one or more module sections, specified in one of the following two forms:

For Git modules, module-name must be a module from the KDE Git repository (for example, kdeartwork or kde-wallpapers).

For Git modules, the module name can be essentially whatever you'd like, as long as it does not duplicate any other module name in the configuration. Keep in mind the source and build directory layout will be based on the module name if you do not use the dest-dir option.

However, for Git module sets the module-names must correspond with actual git modules in the chosen repository. See git-repository-base or use-modules for more information.

In general, the entire line contents after the option-name is used as the option-value.

One modification that kdesrc-build performs is that a sequence "${name-of-option}" is replaced with the value of that option from the global configuration. This allows you to reference the value of existing options, including options already set by kdesrc-build.

To see an example of this in use, see Example 2.1, “Configuring Make to use all available CPUs, with exceptions”.

You can also introduce your own non-standard global variables for referencing them further in the config. To do this, your option name should be prepended with underscore symbol. Example:

global
  _ver 6  # ← your custom variable (starting with underscore)
  _kde ~/kde${_ver}  # ← custom variable can contain another defined variable
  source-dir ${_kde}/src  # ← note that nested variable (_kde → _ver) is also resolved
end global

options kdepim
  log-dir /custom/path/logs${_ver} # ← you can use custom variable just like a standard
end options

There is a final type of configuration file entry, options groups, which may be given wherever a module or module-set may be used.

options module-name
option-name option-value
[...]
end options

An options group may have options set for it just like a module declaration, and is associated with an existing module. Any options set these way will be used to override options set for the associated module.

This is useful to allow for declaring an entire module-set worth of modules, all using the same options, and then using options groups to make individual changes.

options groups can also apply to named module sets. This allows expert users to use a common configuration file (which includes module-set declarations) as a baseline, and then make changes to the options used by those module-sets in configuration files that use the include command to reference the base configuration.

module-set kde-multimedia-set
  repository kde-projects
  use-modules kde/kdemultimedia
  branch master
end module-set

# kmix is a part of kde/kdemultimedia group, even though we never named
# kmix earlier in this file, kdesrc-build will figure out the change.
options kmix
  branch KDE/4.12
end options