lightning/doc/INSTALL.md

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 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

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 FreeBSD 11.1-RELEASE

Get dependencies:

# pkg install -y autoconf automake git 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

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 Nix{,OS}

Untested on MacOS/Windows/Other Linux. Works 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