Introduction

In Linux, you can build either Gdk port or Qt port. Gdk, QT port means the GUI browser is implemented using those libraries. So, These ports need external dependent libraries pre-installed on the system to get build. NOTE: Gdk and QT port share the external dependencies.

Dependencies

Check http://trac.webkit.org/projects/webkit/wiki/BuildingGdk and http://trac.webkit.org/projects/webkit/wiki/QtWebKit to get a more detailed compilation steps.

Easy steps

Build Gdk Port

• Checkout the main trunk from SVN. It will take atleast 2 hrs to get this complete.

    $ svn co http://svn.webkit.org/repository/webkit/trunk WebKit

• The checkout is around 1.1GB of size and after build it grows to 1.5GB.

• While SVN checkout is going on, you time save by issuing the following command in a new terminal to install the external dependencies required for the Gdk port to be build,

   
In Fedora,

    # yum install qt4 qt4-devel gperf sqlite-devel bison flex libxslt gtk+ libicu-devel libjpeg-devel libsqlite3-devel 

In Debain/Ubuntu, Not sure ;)

    # apt-get install qt4 qt4-devel gperf sqlite-devel bison flex libxslt gtk+ libicu-devel libjpeg-devel libsqlite3-devel 

In Gentoo, will not work.. some body can check ;)

    # emerge qt4 qt4-devel gperf sqlite-devel bison flex libxslt gtk+ libicu-devel libjpeg-devel libsqlite3-devel 
 

 NOTE: Some packages given in the above command may be already got installed by default. All the above packages are requirement for the Gdk port to get compiled.

• Export path variable using the command,

    $ export QTDIR=/usr/lib/qt4
    $ export PATH=$QTDIR/bin:$PATH

• Build WebKit and the Gdk test browser with

WebKit/WebKitTools/Scripts/build-webkit --gdk --default

• Testing the port

A very simple test browser is built at

WebKit/WebKitBuild/Debug/WebKitTools/GdkLauncher/GdkLauncher

Building QT port

The same procedure upto build steps. After that use the following command,

• Build WebKit and the Gdk test browser with

WebKit/WebKitTools/Scripts/build-webkit --gdk --default

• Testing the port

A very simple test browser is built at

WebKit/WebKitBuild/Release/WebKitQt/QtLauncher/QtLauncher