Setting up your environment

Before you can build Servo, you will need to:

Check if you have the necessary tools. If not, install them: Windows, macOS, Linux
Check your tools again. If not, you may need to restart your shell, or log out and log back in.
If you are on NixOS, you can stop here, no further action needed!
Install the other dependencies by running ./mach bootstrap (or .\mach bootstrap on Windows). If you prefer not to do that, or your Linux distro is unsupported by mach, you can instead follow the steps below:
- Try the Nix method or a distro-specific method: Arch, Debian, elementary OS, Fedora, Gentoo, KDE neon, Linux Mint, Manjaro, openSUSE, Pop!_OS, Raspbian, TUXEDO OS, Ubuntu, Void Linux
- Install taplo and crown by running ./mach bootstrap --skip-platform

Sometimes the tools or dependencies needed to build Servo will change. If you start encountering build problems after updating Servo, try running ./mach bootstrap again, or set up your environment from the beginning.

You are not alone! If you have problems setting up your environment that you can’t solve, you can always ask for help in the build issues chat on Zulip.

Checking if you have the tools installed

curl --version should print a version like 7.83.1 or 8.4.0
- On Windows, type curl.exe --version instead, to avoid getting the PowerShell alias for Invoke-WebRequest
python --version should print 3.11.0 or newer (3.11.1, 3.12.0, …)
rustup --version should print a version like 1.26.0
(Windows only) choco --version should print a version like 2.2.2
(macOS only) brew --version should print a version like 4.2.17

Tools for Windows

Note that curl will already be installed on Windows 1804 or newer.

Download and install python from the Python website
Download and install choco from the Chocolatey website
If you already have rustup, download the Community edition of Visual Studio 2022
If you don’t have rustup, download and run the rustup installer: rustup-init.exe
- Be sure to select Quick install via the Visual Studio Community installer
In the Visual Studio installer, ensure the following components are installed:
- Windows 10 SDK (10.0.19041.0)
  (Microsoft.VisualStudio.Component.Windows10SDK.19041)
- MSVC v143 - VS 2022 C++ x64/x86 build tools (Latest)
  (Microsoft.VisualStudio.Component.VC.Tools.x86.x64)
- C++ ATL for latest v143 build tools (x86 & x64)
  (Microsoft.VisualStudio.Component.VC.ATL)
- C++ MFC for latest v143 build tools (x86 & x64)
  (Microsoft.VisualStudio.Component.VC.ATLMFC)

We don’t recommend having more than one version of Visual Studio installed. Servo will try to search for the appropriate version of Visual Studio, but having only a single version installed means fewer things can go wrong.

Tools for macOS

Note that curl will already be installed on macOS.

Download and install python from the Python website
Download and install Xcode
Download and install brew from the Homebrew website
Download and install rustup from the rustup website

Tools for Linux

Install curl and python:
- Arch: sudo pacman -S --needed curl python python-pip
- Debian, Ubuntu: sudo apt install curl python3-pip python3-venv
- Fedora: sudo dnf install curl python3 python3-pip python3-devel
- Gentoo: sudo emerge net-misc/curl dev-python/pip
Download and install rustup from the rustup website

On NixOS, type nix-shell to enter a shell with all of the necessary tools and dependencies. You can install python3 to allow mach to run nix-shell automatically:

environment.systemPackages = [ pkgs.python3 ]; (install globally)
home.packages = [ pkgs.python3 ]; (install with Home Manager)

Dependencies for any Linux distro, using Nix

Make sure you have curl and python installed (see Tools for Linux)
Make sure you have the runtime dependencies installed as well
Install Nix, the package manager — the easiest way is to use the installer, with either the multi-user or single-user installation (your choice)
Tell mach to use Nix: export MACH_USE_NIX=

Dependencies for Arch

(including Manjaro)

sudo pacman -S --needed curl python python-pip
sudo pacman -S --needed base-devel git mesa cmake libxmu pkg-config ttf-fira-sans harfbuzz ccache llvm clang autoconf2.13 gstreamer gstreamer-vaapi gst-plugins-base gst-plugins-good gst-plugins-bad gst-plugins-ugly vulkan-icd-loader

Dependencies for Debian

(including elementary OS, KDE neon, Linux Mint, Pop!_OS, Raspbian, TUXEDO OS, Ubuntu)

sudo apt install curl python3-pip python3-venv

sudo apt install build-essential ccache clang cmake curl g++ git gperf libdbus-1-dev libfreetype6-dev libgl1-mesa-dri libgles2-mesa-dev libglib2.0-dev gstreamer1.0-plugins-good libgstreamer-plugins-good1.0-dev gstreamer1.0-plugins-bad libgstreamer-plugins-bad1.0-dev gstreamer1.0-plugins-ugly gstreamer1.0-plugins-base libgstreamer-plugins-base1.0-dev gstreamer1.0-libav libgstrtspserver-1.0-dev gstreamer1.0-tools libges-1.0-dev libharfbuzz-dev liblzma-dev libudev-dev libunwind-dev libvulkan1 libx11-dev libxcb-render0-dev libxcb-shape0-dev libxcb-xfixes0-dev libxmu-dev libxmu6 libegl1-mesa-dev llvm-dev m4 xorg-dev

Dependencies for Fedora

sudo dnf install python3 python3-pip python3-devel

sudo dnf install libtool gcc-c++ libXi-devel freetype-devel libunwind-devel mesa-libGL-devel mesa-libEGL-devel glib2-devel libX11-devel libXrandr-devel gperf fontconfig-devel cabextract ttmkfdir expat-devel rpm-build cmake libXcursor-devel libXmu-devel dbus-devel ncurses-devel harfbuzz-devel ccache clang clang-libs llvm python3-devel gstreamer1-devel gstreamer1-plugins-base-devel gstreamer1-plugins-good gstreamer1-plugins-bad-free-devel gstreamer1-plugins-ugly-free libjpeg-turbo-devel zlib libjpeg vulkan-loader

Dependencies for Gentoo

sudo emerge net-misc/curl media-libs/freetype media-libs/mesa dev-util/gperf dev-python/pip dev-libs/openssl media-libs/harfbuzz dev-util/ccache sys-libs/libunwind x11-libs/libXmu x11-base/xorg-server sys-devel/clang media-libs/gstreamer media-libs/gst-plugins-base media-libs/gst-plugins-good media-libs/gst-plugins-bad media-libs/gst-plugins-ugly media-libs/vulkan-loader

Dependencies for openSUSE

sudo zypper install libX11-devel libexpat-devel Mesa-libEGL-devel Mesa-libGL-devel cabextract cmake dbus-1-devel fontconfig-devel freetype-devel gcc-c++ git glib2-devel gperf harfbuzz-devel libXcursor-devel libXi-devel libXmu-devel libXrandr-devel libopenssl-devel python3-pip rpm-build ccache llvm-clang libclang autoconf213 gstreamer-devel gstreamer-plugins-base-devel gstreamer-plugins-good gstreamer-plugins-bad-devel gstreamer-plugins-ugly vulkan-loader libvulkan1

Dependencies for Void Linux

sudo xbps-install libtool gcc libXi-devel freetype-devel libunwind-devel MesaLib-devel glib-devel pkg-config libX11-devel libXrandr-devel gperf bzip2-devel fontconfig-devel cabextract expat-devel cmake cmake libXcursor-devel libXmu-devel dbus-devel ncurses-devel harfbuzz-devel ccache glu-devel clang gstreamer1-devel gst-plugins-base1-devel gst-plugins-good1 gst-plugins-bad1-devel gst-plugins-ugly1 vulkan-loader

The Servo Book