lightning/doc/INSTALL.md

Table of Contents

1. Library Requirements
2. Ubuntu
3. Fedora
4. FreeBSD
5. NixOS
6. Android
7. Additional steps

Library Requirements

You will need several development libraries:

• libsqlite3: for database support.
• libgmp: for secp256k1

For actually doing development and running the tests, you will also need:

• pip3: to install python-bitcoinlib
• asciidoc: for formatting the man pages (if you change them)
• valgrind: for extra debugging checks

You will also need a version of bitcoind with segregated witness and estimatesmartfee economical node, such as the 0.15 or above.

To Build on Ubuntu

OS version: Ubuntu 15.10 or above

Get dependencies:

sudo apt-get install -y \
  autoconf automake build-essential git libtool libgmp-dev \
  libsqlite3-dev python python3 net-tools libsodium-dev

If you don't have Bitcoin installed locally you'll need to install that as well:

sudo apt-get install software-properties-common
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:bitcoin/bitcoin
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install -y bitcoind

For development or running tests, get additional dependencies:

sudo apt-get install -y asciidoc valgrind python3-pip
sudo pip3 install python-bitcoinlib

Clone lightning:

git clone https://github.com/ElementsProject/lightning.git
cd lightning

Build lightning:

make

Running lightning:

bitcoind &
./lightningd/lightningd &
./cli/lightning-cli help

Note: You may need to include testnet=1 in bitcoin.conf

To Build on Fedora

OS version: Fedora 27 or above

Get dependencies:

$ sudo dnf update -y && \
        dnf groupinstall -y \
                'C Development Tools and Libraries' \
                'Development Tools' && \
        dnf install -y \
                clang \
                gmp-devel \
                libsq3-devel \
                python2-devel \
                python3-devel \
                python3-pip \
                python3-setuptools \
                net-tools \
                libsodium-devel \
                net-tools \
                valgrind \
                wget && \
        dnf clean all

Make sure you have bitcoind available to run

Clone lightning:

$ git clone https://github.com/ElementsProject/lightning.git
$ cd lightning

Build and install lightning:

$lightning> make
$lightning> sudo make install

Running lightning (mainnet):

$ bitcoind &
$ lightningd --network=bitcoin

Running lightning on testnet:

$ bitcoind -testnet &
$ lightningd --network=testnet

To Build on FreeBSD

OS version: FreeBSD 11.1-RELEASE or above

Get dependencies:

# pkg install -y \
  autoconf automake git gmp asciidoc gmake libtool python python3 sqlite3

If you don't have Bitcoin installed locally you'll need to install that as well:

# pkg install -y bitcoin-daemon bitcoin-utils

Clone lightning:

$ git clone https://github.com/ElementsProject/lightning.git
$ cd lightning

Build lightning:

$ gmake
$ gmake install

Running lightning:

Note: Edit your /usr/local/etc/bitcoin.conf to include rpcuser=<foo> and rpcpassword=<bar> first, you may also need to include testnet=1

# service bitcoind start
$ ./lightningd/lightningd &
$ ./cli/lightning-cli help

To Build on NixOS

Use nix-shell launch a shell with a full clightning dev environment:

$ nix-shell -Q -p gdb sqlite autoconf git clang libtool gmp sqlite autoconf \
autogen automake 'python3.withPackages (p: [p.bitcoinlib])' \
valgrind asciidoc --run make

To cross-compile for Android

Make a standalone toolchain as per https://developer.android.com/ndk/guides/standalone_toolchain.html. For c-lightning you must target an API level of 24 or higher.

Depending on your toolchain location and target arch, source env variables such as:

export PATH=$PATH:/path/to/android/toolchain/bin
# Change next line depending on target device arch
target_host=arm-linux-androideabi
export AR=$target_host-ar
export AS=$target_host-clang
export CC=$target_host-clang
export CXX=$target_host-clang++
export LD=$target_host-ld
export STRIP=$target_host-strip

Two makefile targets should not be cross-compiled so we specify a native CC:

make CC=clang clean ccan/tools/configurator/configurator
make clean -C ccan/ccan/cdump/tools \
  && make CC=clang -C ccan/ccan/cdump/tools

Install the qemu-user package. This will allow you to properly configure the build for the target device environment. Build with:

BUILD=x86_64 HOST=arm-linux-androideabi \
  make PIE=1 DEVELOPER=0 \
  CONFIGURATOR_CC="arm-linux-androideabi-clang -static"

Additional steps

Go to README for more information how to create an address, add funds, connect to a node, etc.