# The first step: learn to compile

# Windows

If you are using Windows, just refer to this article: [Tutorial] Detailed methods for manual compilation and cross-compilation of V2Ray under Windows (opens new window)

# Pre-work

V2Ray uses Golang (opens new window) as the main programming language. Bazel (opens new window) is used as the build tool in the team release process. It is recommended to use macOS or Linux for development. A small amount of scripts may not run properly on Windows.

Install Golang: golang.org/doc/install (opens new window)
Install Bazel: docs.bazel.build/install (opens new window) (No need for manual/script compilation)

# Pull V2Ray source code

go get -u -v v2ray.com/core/...

Note that this command cannot be completed normally if Google’s network environment cannot be accessed normally. In case of situation, you need to configure a local HTTP proxy server first, and configure local environment variables, such as

export http_proxy=http://localhost:1080
export https_proxy=http://localhost:1080

go will use the local HTTP proxy on port 1080 to pull the source code.

# Manual construction

cd $(go env GOPATH)/src/v2ray.com/core/main
env CGO_ENABLED=0 go build -o $HOME/v2ray -ldflags "-s -w"

cd $(go env GOPATH)/src/v2ray.com/core/infra/control/main
env CGO_ENABLED=0 go build -o $HOME/v2ctl -tags confonly -ldflags "-s -w"

The above command generates the newly-built v2ray and v2ctl executable files in the current user's $HOME directory, and it can be used normally.

The process of building other CPU architectures and other systems (Windows/macOS) belongs to the cross-compilation process of golang. It mainly controls the two variables of GOOS / GOARCH. Please refer to the relevant golang documents, and I will not repeat them here.

# Script build

The above manual construction is only the v2ray executable program itself, the distribution package zip also contains other files such as the address library. The release package can be easily produced by using the packaging script.

wget https://raw.githubusercontent.com/v2ray/v2ray-core/master/release/user-package.sh
chmod 755 user-package.sh
./user-package.sh

Execute the above script directly to generate a file similar to v2ray-custom-linux-amd64-20190710-000000.zip in the current directory, which is the release package.

You can use some personalized parameters to customize the release package:

windows build a release package for the Windows version
darwin build the release package of darwin (macOS) version
tgz is packaged as tar.gz
386 is built as a 32-bit program
arm builds release for ARM architecture CPU，arm arm64
mips Same as above, please refer to the cross-compilation document of golang
nodat does not include domain name/IP database geoip.dat and geosite.dat, which can reduce the size of the release package
noconf does not contain example json, systemd/systemv and other configuration files
nosource Don't execute go get ... to avoid overwriting the v2ray source code that has been pulled locally

The above parameters have no order requirements, only need to be passed to the script as needed. Take building a distribution package suitable for Windows 32-bit without address library and sample configuration as an example:

./user-package.sh windows 386 nodat noconf

For v2ray compiled by the script, its startup information will become the time when the user was compiled to distinguish:

V2Ray 4.20.0 (user) 20190710-010000
A unified platform for anti-censorship.

Users can also modify the information in the script and customize their own version.

CODENAME="user"
BUILDNAME=$NOW

# Automatic build

The bazel build tool is mainly used by the release team.

If you only need to build an installation package for a specific platform, such as Linux / AMD64:

cd $(go env GOPATH)/src/v2ray.com/core
bazel build --action_env=PATH=$PATH --action_env=SPWD=$PWD --action_env=GOPATH=$(go env GOPATH) --action_env=GOCACHE=$(go env GOCACHE) --spawn_strategy local //release: v2ray_linux_amd64_package
#Output: bazel-bin/release/v2ray-linux-64.zip

Build all installation packages:

cd $(go env GOPATH)/src/v2ray.com/core
bazel build --action_env=PATH=$PATH --action_env=SPWD=$PWD --action_env=GOPATH=$(go env GOPATH) --action_env=GOCACHE=$(go env GOCACHE) --spawn_strategy local //release: all

# Install the completed installation package

$GOPATH/src/v2ray.com/core/release/install-release.sh --local <path/to/zip/file>