4 ![Build Status](https://github.com/minetest/minetest/workflows/build/badge.svg)
5 [![Translation status](https://hosted.weblate.org/widgets/minetest/-/svg-badge.svg)](https://hosted.weblate.org/engage/minetest/?utm_source=widget)
6 [![License](https://img.shields.io/badge/license-LGPLv2.1%2B-blue.svg)](https://www.gnu.org/licenses/old-licenses/lgpl-2.1.en.html)
8 Minetest is a free open-source voxel game engine with easy modding and game creation.
10 Copyright (C) 2010-2022 Perttu Ahola <celeron55@gmail.com>
11 and contributors (see source file comments and the version control log)
13 In case you downloaded the source code
14 --------------------------------------
15 If you downloaded the Minetest Engine source code in which this file is
16 contained, you probably want to download the [Minetest Game](https://github.com/minetest/minetest_game/)
17 project too. See its README.txt for more information.
22 1. [Further Documentation](#further-documentation)
23 2. [Default Controls](#default-controls)
25 4. [Configuration File](#configuration-file)
26 5. [Command-line Options](#command-line-options)
27 6. [Compiling](#compiling)
29 8. [Version Scheme](#version-scheme)
33 ----------------------
34 - Website: https://minetest.net/
35 - Wiki: https://wiki.minetest.net/
36 - Developer wiki: https://dev.minetest.net/
37 - Forum: https://forum.minetest.net/
38 - GitHub: https://github.com/minetest/minetest/
39 - [doc/](doc/) directory of source distribution
43 All controls are re-bindable using settings.
44 Some can be changed in the key config dialog in the settings tab.
47 |-------------------------------|----------------------------------------------------------------|
48 | Move mouse | Look around |
50 | Space | Jump/move up |
51 | Shift | Sneak/move down |
52 | Q | Drop itemstack |
53 | Shift + Q | Drop single item |
54 | Left mouse button | Dig/punch/take item |
55 | Right mouse button | Place/use |
56 | Shift + right mouse button | Build (without using) |
57 | I | Inventory menu |
58 | Mouse wheel | Select item |
60 | Z | Zoom (needs zoom privilege) |
63 | Esc | Pause menu/abort/exit (pauses only singleplayer game) |
64 | R | Enable/disable full range view |
65 | + | Increase view range |
66 | - | Decrease view range |
67 | K | Enable/disable fly mode (needs fly privilege) |
68 | P | Enable/disable pitch move mode |
69 | J | Enable/disable fast mode (needs fast privilege) |
70 | H | Enable/disable noclip mode (needs noclip privilege) |
71 | E | Aux1 (Move fast in fast mode. Games may add special features) |
72 | C | Cycle through camera modes |
73 | V | Cycle through minimap modes |
74 | Shift + V | Change minimap orientation |
75 | F1 | Hide/show HUD |
76 | F2 | Hide/show chat |
77 | F3 | Disable/enable fog |
78 | F4 | Disable/enable camera update (Mapblocks are not updated anymore when disabled, disabled in release builds) |
79 | F5 | Cycle through debug information screens |
80 | F6 | Cycle through profiler info screens |
81 | F10 | Show/hide console |
82 | F12 | Take screenshot |
88 * `bin` - Compiled binaries
89 * `share` - Distributed read-only data
90 * `user` - User-created modifiable data
92 Where each location is on each platform:
94 * Windows .zip / RUN_IN_PLACE source:
99 * `bin` = `C:\Program Files\Minetest\bin (Depends on the install location)`
100 * `share` = `C:\Program Files\Minetest (Depends on the install location)`
101 * `user` = `%APPDATA%\Minetest` or `%MINETEST_USER_PATH%`
104 * `share` = `/usr/share/minetest`
105 * `user` = `~/.minetest` or `$MINETEST_USER_PATH`
107 * `bin` = `Contents/MacOS`
108 * `share` = `Contents/Resources`
109 * `user` = `Contents/User` or `~/Library/Application Support/minetest` or `$MINETEST_USER_PATH`
111 Worlds can be found as separate folders in: `user/worlds/`
117 - This file is created by closing Minetest for the first time.
118 - A specific file can be specified on the command line:
119 `--config <path-to-file>`
120 - A run-in-place build will look for the configuration file in
121 `location_of_exe/../minetest.conf` and also `location_of_exe/../../minetest.conf`
129 ### Compiling on GNU/Linux
133 | Dependency | Version | Commentary |
134 |------------|---------|------------|
135 | GCC | 5.1+ | or Clang 3.5+ |
137 | IrrlichtMt | - | Custom version of Irrlicht, see https://github.com/minetest/irrlicht |
138 | Freetype | 2.0+ | |
141 | LuaJIT | 2.0+ | Bundled Lua 5.1 is used if not present |
142 | GMP | 5.0.0+ | Bundled mini-GMP is used if not present |
143 | JsonCPP | 1.0.0+ | Bundled JsonCPP is used if not present |
145 For Debian/Ubuntu users:
147 sudo apt install g++ make libc6-dev cmake libpng-dev libjpeg-dev libxi-dev libgl1-mesa-dev libsqlite3-dev libogg-dev libvorbis-dev libopenal-dev libcurl4-gnutls-dev libfreetype6-dev zlib1g-dev libgmp-dev libjsoncpp-dev libzstd-dev libluajit-5.1-dev
151 sudo dnf install make automake gcc gcc-c++ kernel-devel cmake libcurl-devel openal-soft-devel libvorbis-devel libXi-devel libogg-devel freetype-devel mesa-libGL-devel zlib-devel jsoncpp-devel gmp-devel sqlite-devel luajit-devel leveldb-devel ncurses-devel spatialindex-devel libzstd-devel
155 sudo pacman -S base-devel libcurl-gnutls cmake libxi libpng sqlite libogg libvorbis openal freetype2 jsoncpp gmp luajit leveldb ncurses zstd
159 sudo apk add build-base cmake libpng-dev jpeg-dev libxi-dev mesa-dev sqlite-dev libogg-dev libvorbis-dev openal-soft-dev curl-dev freetype-dev zlib-dev gmp-dev jsoncpp-dev luajit-dev zstd-dev
163 You can install Git for easily keeping your copy up to date.
164 If you don’t want Git, read below on how to get the source without Git.
165 This is an example for installing Git on Debian/Ubuntu:
173 Download source (this is the URL to the latest of source repository, which might not work at all times) using Git:
175 git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/minetest/minetest.git
178 Download Minetest Game (otherwise only the "Development Test" game is available) using Git:
180 git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/minetest/minetest_game.git games/minetest_game
182 Download IrrlichtMt to `lib/irrlichtmt`, it will be used to satisfy the IrrlichtMt dependency that way:
184 git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/minetest/irrlicht.git lib/irrlichtmt
186 Download source, without using Git:
188 wget https://github.com/minetest/minetest/archive/master.tar.gz
192 Download Minetest Game, without using Git:
195 wget https://github.com/minetest/minetest_game/archive/master.tar.gz
197 mv minetest_game-master minetest_game
200 Download IrrlichtMt, without using Git:
203 wget https://github.com/minetest/irrlicht/archive/master.tar.gz
205 mv irrlicht-master irrlichtmt
210 Build a version that runs directly from the source directory:
212 cmake . -DRUN_IN_PLACE=TRUE
219 - Use `cmake . -LH` to see all CMake options and their current state.
220 - If you want to install it system-wide (or are making a distribution package),
221 you will want to use `-DRUN_IN_PLACE=FALSE`.
222 - You can build a bare server by specifying `-DBUILD_SERVER=TRUE`.
223 - You can disable the client build by specifying `-DBUILD_CLIENT=FALSE`.
224 - You can select between Release and Debug build by `-DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=<Debug or Release>`.
225 - Debug build is slower, but gives much more useful output in a debugger.
226 - If you build a bare server you don't need to compile IrrlichtMt, just the headers suffice.
227 - In that case use `-DIRRLICHT_INCLUDE_DIR=/some/where/irrlichtmt/include`.
229 - Minetest will use the IrrlichtMt package that is found first, given by the following order:
230 1. Specified `IRRLICHTMT_BUILD_DIR` CMake variable
231 2. `${PROJECT_SOURCE_DIR}/lib/irrlichtmt` (if existent)
232 3. Installation of IrrlichtMt in the system-specific library paths
233 4. For server builds with disabled `BUILD_CLIENT` variable, the headers from `IRRLICHT_INCLUDE_DIR` will be used.
234 - NOTE: Changing the IrrlichtMt build directory (includes system installs) requires regenerating the CMake cache (`rm CMakeCache.txt`)
238 General options and their default values:
240 BUILD_CLIENT=TRUE - Build Minetest client
241 BUILD_SERVER=FALSE - Build Minetest server
242 BUILD_UNITTESTS=TRUE - Build unittest sources
243 BUILD_BENCHMARKS=FALSE - Build benchmark sources
244 CMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=Release - Type of build (Release vs. Debug)
245 Release - Release build
247 SemiDebug - Partially optimized debug build
248 RelWithDebInfo - Release build with debug information
249 MinSizeRel - Release build with -Os passed to compiler to make executable as small as possible
250 ENABLE_CURL=ON - Build with cURL; Enables use of online mod repo, public serverlist and remote media fetching via http
251 ENABLE_CURSES=ON - Build with (n)curses; Enables a server side terminal (command line option: --terminal)
252 ENABLE_GETTEXT=ON - Build with Gettext; Allows using translations
253 ENABLE_GLES=OFF - Enable extra support code for OpenGL ES (requires support by IrrlichtMt)
254 ENABLE_LEVELDB=ON - Build with LevelDB; Enables use of LevelDB map backend
255 ENABLE_POSTGRESQL=ON - Build with libpq; Enables use of PostgreSQL map backend (PostgreSQL 9.5 or greater recommended)
256 ENABLE_REDIS=ON - Build with libhiredis; Enables use of Redis map backend
257 ENABLE_SPATIAL=ON - Build with LibSpatial; Speeds up AreaStores
258 ENABLE_SOUND=ON - Build with OpenAL, libogg & libvorbis; in-game sounds
259 ENABLE_LUAJIT=ON - Build with LuaJIT (much faster than non-JIT Lua)
260 ENABLE_PROMETHEUS=OFF - Build with Prometheus metrics exporter (listens on tcp/30000 by default)
261 ENABLE_SYSTEM_GMP=ON - Use GMP from system (much faster than bundled mini-gmp)
262 ENABLE_SYSTEM_JSONCPP=ON - Use JsonCPP from system
263 RUN_IN_PLACE=FALSE - Create a portable install (worlds, settings etc. in current directory)
264 ENABLE_UPDATE_CHECKER=TRUE - Whether to enable update checks by default
265 USE_GPROF=FALSE - Enable profiling using GProf
266 VERSION_EXTRA= - Text to append to version (e.g. VERSION_EXTRA=foobar -> Minetest 0.4.9-foobar)
267 ENABLE_TOUCH=FALSE - Enable Touchscreen support (requires support by IrrlichtMt)
269 Library specific options:
271 CURL_DLL - Only if building with cURL on Windows; path to libcurl.dll
272 CURL_INCLUDE_DIR - Only if building with cURL; directory where curl.h is located
273 CURL_LIBRARY - Only if building with cURL; path to libcurl.a/libcurl.so/libcurl.lib
274 EGL_INCLUDE_DIR - Only if building with GLES; directory that contains egl.h
275 EGL_LIBRARY - Only if building with GLES; path to libEGL.a/libEGL.so
276 EXTRA_DLL - Only on Windows; optional paths to additional DLLs that should be packaged
277 FREETYPE_INCLUDE_DIR_freetype2 - Directory that contains files such as ftimage.h
278 FREETYPE_INCLUDE_DIR_ft2build - Directory that contains ft2build.h
279 FREETYPE_LIBRARY - Path to libfreetype.a/libfreetype.so/freetype.lib
280 FREETYPE_DLL - Only on Windows; path to libfreetype-6.dll
281 GETTEXT_DLL - Only when building with gettext on Windows; paths to libintl + libiconv DLLs
282 GETTEXT_INCLUDE_DIR - Only when building with gettext; directory that contains libintl.h
283 GETTEXT_LIBRARY - Optional/platform-dependent with gettext; path to libintl.so/libintl.dll.a
284 GETTEXT_MSGFMT - Only when building with gettext; path to msgfmt/msgfmt.exe
285 ICONV_LIBRARY - Optional/platform-dependent; path to libiconv.so/libiconv.dylib
286 IRRLICHT_DLL - Only on Windows; path to IrrlichtMt.dll
287 IRRLICHT_INCLUDE_DIR - Directory that contains IrrCompileConfig.h (usable for server build only)
288 LEVELDB_INCLUDE_DIR - Only when building with LevelDB; directory that contains db.h
289 LEVELDB_LIBRARY - Only when building with LevelDB; path to libleveldb.a/libleveldb.so/libleveldb.dll.a
290 LEVELDB_DLL - Only when building with LevelDB on Windows; path to libleveldb.dll
291 PostgreSQL_INCLUDE_DIR - Only when building with PostgreSQL; directory that contains libpq-fe.h
292 PostgreSQL_LIBRARY - Only when building with PostgreSQL; path to libpq.a/libpq.so/libpq.lib
293 REDIS_INCLUDE_DIR - Only when building with Redis; directory that contains hiredis.h
294 REDIS_LIBRARY - Only when building with Redis; path to libhiredis.a/libhiredis.so
295 SPATIAL_INCLUDE_DIR - Only when building with LibSpatial; directory that contains spatialindex/SpatialIndex.h
296 SPATIAL_LIBRARY - Only when building with LibSpatial; path to libspatialindex_c.so/spatialindex-32.lib
297 LUA_INCLUDE_DIR - Only if you want to use LuaJIT; directory where luajit.h is located
298 LUA_LIBRARY - Only if you want to use LuaJIT; path to libluajit.a/libluajit.so
299 OGG_DLL - Only if building with sound on Windows; path to libogg.dll
300 OGG_INCLUDE_DIR - Only if building with sound; directory that contains an ogg directory which contains ogg.h
301 OGG_LIBRARY - Only if building with sound; path to libogg.a/libogg.so/libogg.dll.a
302 OPENAL_DLL - Only if building with sound on Windows; path to OpenAL32.dll
303 OPENAL_INCLUDE_DIR - Only if building with sound; directory where al.h is located
304 OPENAL_LIBRARY - Only if building with sound; path to libopenal.a/libopenal.so/OpenAL32.lib
305 SQLITE3_INCLUDE_DIR - Directory that contains sqlite3.h
306 SQLITE3_LIBRARY - Path to libsqlite3.a/libsqlite3.so/sqlite3.lib
307 VORBISFILE_LIBRARY - Only if building with sound; path to libvorbisfile.a/libvorbisfile.so/libvorbisfile.dll.a
308 VORBIS_DLL - Only if building with sound on Windows; paths to vorbis DLLs
309 VORBIS_INCLUDE_DIR - Only if building with sound; directory that contains a directory vorbis with vorbisenc.h inside
310 VORBIS_LIBRARY - Only if building with sound; path to libvorbis.a/libvorbis.so/libvorbis.dll.a
311 ZLIB_DLL - Only on Windows; path to zlib1.dll
312 ZLIB_INCLUDE_DIR - Directory that contains zlib.h
313 ZLIB_LIBRARY - Path to libz.a/libz.so/zlib.lib
314 ZSTD_DLL - Only on Windows; path to libzstd.dll
315 ZSTD_INCLUDE_DIR - Directory that contains zstd.h
316 ZSTD_LIBRARY - Path to libzstd.a/libzstd.so/ztd.lib
318 ### Compiling on Windows using MSVC
322 - [Visual Studio 2015 or newer](https://visualstudio.microsoft.com)
323 - [CMake](https://cmake.org/download/)
324 - [vcpkg](https://github.com/Microsoft/vcpkg)
325 - [Git](https://git-scm.com/downloads)
327 ### Compiling and installing the dependencies
329 It is highly recommended to use vcpkg as package manager.
331 After you successfully built vcpkg you can easily install the required libraries:
333 vcpkg install zlib zstd curl[winssl] openal-soft libvorbis libogg libjpeg-turbo sqlite3 freetype luajit gmp jsoncpp opengl-registry --triplet x64-windows
336 - **Don't forget about IrrlichtMt.** The easiest way is to clone it to `lib/irrlichtmt` as described in the Linux section.
337 - `curl` is optional, but required to read the serverlist, `curl[winssl]` is required to use the content store.
338 - `openal-soft`, `libvorbis` and `libogg` are optional, but required to use sound.
339 - `luajit` is optional, it replaces the integrated Lua interpreter with a faster just-in-time interpreter.
340 - `gmp` and `jsoncpp` are optional, otherwise the bundled versions will be compiled
342 There are other optional libraries, but they are not tested if they can build and link correctly.
344 Use `--triplet` to specify the target triplet, e.g. `x64-windows` or `x86-windows`.
348 #### a) Using the vcpkg toolchain and CMake GUI
349 1. Start up the CMake GUI
350 2. Select **Browse Source...** and select DIR/minetest
351 3. Select **Browse Build...** and select DIR/minetest-build
352 4. Select **Configure**
353 5. Choose the right visual Studio version and target platform. It has to match the version of the installed dependencies
354 6. Choose **Specify toolchain file for cross-compiling**
356 8. Select the vcpkg toolchain file e.g. `D:/vcpkg/scripts/buildsystems/vcpkg.cmake`
358 10. Wait until cmake have generated the cash file
359 11. If there are any errors, solve them and hit **Configure**
360 12. Click **Generate**
361 13. Click **Open Project**
362 14. Compile Minetest inside Visual studio.
364 #### b) Using the vcpkg toolchain and the commandline
366 Run the following script in PowerShell:
369 cmake . -G"Visual Studio 15 2017 Win64" -DCMAKE_TOOLCHAIN_FILE=D:/vcpkg/scripts/buildsystems/vcpkg.cmake -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=Release -DENABLE_GETTEXT=OFF -DENABLE_CURSES=OFF
370 cmake --build . --config Release
372 Make sure that the right compiler is selected and the path to the vcpkg toolchain is correct.
374 ### Windows Installer using WiX Toolset
377 * [Visual Studio 2017](https://visualstudio.microsoft.com/)
378 * [WiX Toolset](https://wixtoolset.org/)
380 In the Visual Studio 2017 Installer select **Optional Features -> WiX Toolset**.
382 Build the binaries as described above, but make sure you unselect `RUN_IN_PLACE`.
384 Open the generated project file with Visual Studio. Right-click **Package** and choose **Generate**.
385 It may take some minutes to generate the installer.
387 ### Compiling on MacOS
390 - [Homebrew](https://brew.sh/)
391 - [Git](https://git-scm.com/downloads)
393 Install dependencies with homebrew:
396 brew install cmake freetype gettext gmp hiredis jpeg jsoncpp leveldb libogg libpng libvorbis luajit zstd
401 Download source (this is the URL to the latest of source repository, which might not work at all times) using Git:
404 git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/minetest/minetest.git
408 Download Minetest Game (otherwise only the "Development Test" game is available) using Git:
411 git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/minetest/minetest_game.git games/minetest_game
414 Download Minetest's fork of Irrlicht:
417 git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/minetest/irrlicht.git lib/irrlichtmt
427 -DCMAKE_OSX_DEPLOYMENT_TARGET=10.14 \
428 -DCMAKE_FIND_FRAMEWORK=LAST \
429 -DCMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX=../build/macos/ \
430 -DRUN_IN_PLACE=FALSE -DENABLE_GETTEXT=TRUE
432 make -j$(sysctl -n hw.logicalcpu)
439 open ./build/macos/minetest.app
444 We provide Minetest server Docker images using the GitLab mirror registry.
446 Images are built on each commit and available using the following tag scheme:
448 * `registry.gitlab.com/minetest/minetest/server:latest` (latest build)
449 * `registry.gitlab.com/minetest/minetest/server:<branch/tag>` (current branch or current tag)
450 * `registry.gitlab.com/minetest/minetest/server:<commit-id>` (current commit id)
452 If you want to test it on a Docker server you can easily run:
454 sudo docker run registry.gitlab.com/minetest/minetest/server:<docker tag>
456 If you want to use it in a production environment you should use volumes bound to the Docker host
457 to persist data and modify the configuration:
459 sudo docker create -v /home/minetest/data/:/var/lib/minetest/ -v /home/minetest/conf/:/etc/minetest/ registry.gitlab.com/minetest/minetest/server:master
461 Data will be written to `/home/minetest/data` on the host, and configuration will be read from `/home/minetest/conf/minetest.conf`.
463 **Note:** If you don't understand the previous commands please read the official Docker documentation before use.
465 You can also host your Minetest server inside a Kubernetes cluster. See our example implementation in [`misc/kubernetes.yml`](misc/kubernetes.yml).
470 We use `major.minor.patch` since 5.0.0-dev. Prior to that we used `0.major.minor`.
472 - Major is incremented when the release contains breaking changes, all other
473 numbers are set to 0.
474 - Minor is incremented when the release contains new non-breaking features,
476 - Patch is incremented when the release only contains bugfixes and very
477 minor/trivial features considered necessary.
479 Since 5.0.0-dev and 0.4.17-dev, the dev notation refers to the next release,
480 i.e.: 5.0.0-dev is the development version leading to 5.0.0.
481 Prior to that we used `previous_version-dev`.