# Building - OwnTone
Linux/FreeBSD DAAP (iTunes) and MPD media server with support for AirPlay devices (multiroom), Apple Remote (and compatibles), Chromecast, Spotify and internet radio.
Author: OwnTone maintainers

Skip to content

# Build Instructions

This document contains instructions for building OwnTone from the git tree. If you just want to build from a release tarball, you don't need the build tools (git, autotools, autoconf, automake, gawk, gperf, gettext, bison and flex), and you can skip the autoreconf step.

## Quick Version for Debian/Ubuntu

If you are the lucky kind, this should get you all the required tools and libraries:

    sudo apt-get install \
      build-essential git autotools-dev autoconf automake libtool gettext gawk \
      gperf bison flex libconfuse-dev libunistring-dev libsqlite3-dev \
      libavcodec-dev libavformat-dev libavfilter-dev libswscale-dev libavutil-dev \
      libasound2-dev libmxml-dev libgcrypt20-dev libavahi-client-dev zlib1g-dev \
      libevent-dev libplist-dev libsodium-dev libjson-c-dev libwebsockets-dev \
      libcurl4-openssl-dev libprotobuf-c-dev

Note that OwnTone will also work with other versions and flavours of libgcrypt and libcurl, so the above are just suggestions.

The following features require extra packages, and that you add a configure argument when you run ./configure:

Feature | Configure argument | Packages
--- | --- | ---
Chromecast | `--enable-chromecast` | libgnutls*-dev
PulseAudio | `--with-pulseaudio` | libpulse-dev

These features can be disabled saving you package dependencies:

Feature | Configure argument | Packages
--- | --- | ---
Spotify (built-in) | `--disable-spotify` | libprotobuf-c-dev
Player web UI | `--disable-webinterface` | libwebsockets-dev
Live web UI | `--without-libwebsockets` | libwebsockets-dev

Then run the following (adding configure arguments for optional features):

    git clone https://github.com/owntone/owntone-server.git
    cd owntone-server
    autoreconf -i
    ./configure --prefix=/usr --sysconfdir=/etc --localstatedir=/var --enable-install-user
    make
    sudo make install

Using `--enable-install-user` means that `make install` will also add system user and group for owntone.

With the above configure arguments, a systemd service file will be installed to `/etc/systemd/system/owntone.service` so that the server will start on boot. Use `--disable-install-systemd` if you don't want that.

Now edit `/etc/owntone.conf`. Note the guide at the top highlighting which settings that normally require modification.

Start the server with `sudo systemctl start owntone` and check that it is running with `sudo systemctl status owntone`.

See the Documentation for usage information.

## Quick version for Fedora

If you haven't already enabled the free RPM fusion packages do that, since you will need ffmpeg. You can google how to do that. Then run:

    sudo dnf install \
      git automake autoconf gettext-devel gperf gawk libtool bison flex \
      sqlite-devel libconfuse-devel libunistring-devel mxml-devel libevent-devel \
      avahi-devel libgcrypt-devel zlib-devel alsa-lib-devel ffmpeg-devel \
      libplist-devel libsodium-devel json-c-devel libwebsockets-devel \
      libcurl-devel protobuf-c-devel

Clone the OwnTone repo:

    git clone https://github.com/owntone/owntone-server.git
    cd owntone-server

Then run the following:

    autoreconf -i
    ./configure --prefix=/usr --sysconfdir=/etc --localstatedir=/var --enable-install-user
    make
    sudo make install

Using `--enable-install-user` means that `make install` will also add system user and group for owntone.

With the above configure arguments, a systemd service file will be installed to `/etc/systemd/system/owntone.service` so that the server will start on boot. Use `--disable-install-systemd` if you don't want that.

Now edit `/etc/owntone.conf`. Note the guide at the top highlighting which settings that normally require modification.

Start the server with `sudo systemctl start owntone` and check that it is running with `sudo systemctl status owntone`.

See the Documentation for usage information.

## Quick Version for FreeBSD

There is a script in the 'scripts' folder that will at least attempt to do all the work for you. And should the script not work for you, you can still look through it and use it as an installation guide.

## Quick Version for macOS Using Homebrew

This workflow file used for building OwnTone via Github actions includes all the steps that you need to execute: .github/workflows/macos.yml

## "Quick" Version for macOS Using MacPorts

Caution:

1) this approach may be out of date, consider using the Homebrew method above since it is continuously tested. 2) MacPorts requires many downloads and lots of time to install (and sometimes build) ports. You will need a decent network connection and some patience!

Install MacPorts (which requires Xcode): https://www.macports.org/install.php

    sudo port install \
      autoconf automake libtool pkgconfig git gperf bison flex libgcrypt \
      libunistring libconfuse ffmpeg libevent json-c libwebsockets curl \
      libplist libsodium protobuf-c

Download, configure, build, and install the Mini-XML library

Download, configure, build and install the libinotify-kqueue library

Add the following to `.bashrc`:

    # add /usr/local to pkg-config path
    export PKG_CONFIG_PATH=/usr/local/lib/pkgconfig:/opt/local/lib/pkgconfig
    # libunistring doesn't support pkg-config, set overrides
    export LIBUNISTRING_CFLAGS=-I/opt/local/include
    export LIBUNISTRING_LIBS="-L/opt/local/lib -lunistring"

Optional features require the following additional ports:

Feature | Configure argument | Ports
--- | --- | ---
Chromecast | `--enable-chromecast` | gnutls
PulseAudio | `--with-pulseaudio` | pulseaudio

Clone the OwnTone repository:

    git clone https://github.com/owntone/owntone-server.git
    cd owntone-server

Finally, configure, build, install, and add configuration arguments for optional features:

    autoreconf -i
    ./configure
    make
    sudo make install

Note: if for some reason you've installed the `avahi` port, you need to add `--without-avahi` to configure above.

Edit `/usr/local/etc/owntone.conf` and change the `uid` to a proper system daemon (eg: unknown), and run the following commands:

    sudo mkdir -p /usr/local/var/run
    sudo mkdir -p /usr/local/var/log # or change logfile in conf
    sudo chown unknown /usr/local/var/cache/owntone # or change conf

Run OwnTone:

    sudo /usr/local/sbin/owntone

Verify it is running (you need to `Ctrl`+`C` to stop dns-sd):

    dns-sd -B _daap._tcp

## Long Version - Requirements

Required tools:

- autotools: autoconf 2.63+, automake 1.10+, libtool 2.2. Run `autoreconf -i` at the top of the source tree to generate the build system.
- gettext: libunistring requires iconv and gettext provides the autotools macro definitions for iconv.
- gperf
- bison 3.0+ (yacc is not sufficient)
- flex (lex is not sufficient)

Libraries:

- Avahi client libraries (avahi-client) 0.6.24+
- SQLite 3.5.0+ with the unlock notify API enabled. SQLite needs to be built with the support for the unlock notify API; this is not always the case in binary packages, so you may need to rebuild SQLite to enable the unlock notify API. You can check for the presence of the `sqlite3_unlock_notify` symbol in the sqlite library. Refer to the `SQLITE_ENABLE_UNLOCK_NOTIFY` in the SQLlite documentation.
- FFmpeg
- libconfuse
- libevent 2.1.4+
- Mini-XML (aka mxml or libmxml)
- Libgcrypt 1.2.0+
- zlib
- libunistring 0.9.3+
- json-c
- libcurl
- libplist 0.16+
- libsodium
- protobuf-c
- alsa-lib (optional - ALSA local audio) often already installed as part of your distro
- PulseAudio (optional - PulseAudio local audio)
- GnuTLS (optional - Chromecast support)
- Libwebsockets 2.0.2+ (optional - websocket support)

Note: If using binary packages, remember that you need the development packages to build OwnTone (usually suffixed with -dev or -devel).

## Long Version - Building and Installing

Start by generating the build system by running `autoreconf -i`. This will generate the configure script and `Makefile.in`.

To display the configure options `run ./configure --help`.

Support for Spotify is optional. Use `--disable-spotify` to disable this feature.

Support for LastFM scrobbling is optional. Use `--enable-lastfm` to enable this feature.

Support for the MPD protocol is optional. Use `--disable-mpd` to disable this feature.

Support for Chromecast devices is optional. Use `--enable-chromecast` to enable this feature.

The player web interface is optional. Use `--disable-webinterface` to disable this feature. If enabled, `sudo make install` will install the prebuild html, js, css files. The prebuild files are:

- `htdocs/index.html`
- `htdocs/player/*`

The source for the player web interface is located under the `web-src` folder and requires nodejs >= 6.0 to be built. In the `web-src` folder run `npm install` to install all dependencies for the player web interface. After that run `npm run build`. This will build the web interface and update the `htdocs` folder. (See Web interface for more informations)

Building with libwebsockets is required if you want the web interface. It will be enabled if the library is present (with headers). Use `--without-libwebsockets` to disable.

Building with PulseAudio is optional. It will be enabled if the library is present (with headers). Use `--without-pulseaudio` to disable.

Recommended build settings:

    ./configure --prefix=/usr --sysconfdir=/etc --localstatedir=/var --enable-install-user

After configure run the usual make, and if that went well, `sudo make install`.

With the above configure arguments, a systemd service file will be installed to `/etc/systemd/system/owntone.service` so that the server will start on boot. Use `--disable-install-systemd` if you don't want that.

Using `--enable-install-user` means that `make install` will also add a system user and group for owntone.

After installation:

- edit the configuration file, `/etc/owntone.conf`
- make sure the Avahi daemon is installed and running (Debian: `apt install avahi-daemon`)

OwnTone will drop privileges to any user you specify in the configuration file if it's started as root.

This user must have read permission to your library and read/write permissions to the database location (`$localstatedir/cache/owntone` by default).

## Non-Priviliged User Version for Development

OwnTone is meant to be run as system wide daemon, but for development purposes you may want to run it isolated to your regular user.

The following description assumes that you want all runtime data stored in `$HOME/owntone_data` and the source in `$HOME/projects/owntone-server`.

Prepare directories for runtime data:

    mkdir -p $HOME/owntone_data/etc
    mkdir -p $HOME/owntone_data/media

Copy one or more mp3 file to test with to `owntone_data/media`.

Checkout OwnTone and configure build:

    cd $HOME/projects
    git clone https://github.com/owntone/owntone-server.git
    cd owntone-server
    autoreconf -vi
    ./configure --prefix=$HOME/owntone_data/usr --sysconfdir=$HOME/owntone_data/etc --localstatedir=$HOME/owntone_data/var

Build and install runtime:

    make install

Edit `owntone_data/etc/owntone.conf`, find the following configuration settings and set them to these values:

      uid = ${USER}
      loglevel = "debug"
      directories = { "${HOME}/owntone_data/media" }

Run the server:

    ./src/owntone -f

Note: You can also use the copy of the binary located in `$HOME/owntone_data/usr/sbin`