Build Instructions for Linux

These instructions apply to all major Linux distributions. The build procedure is identical everywhere; only the package installation commands differ.

Tip

Prebuilt packages are available for many distributions: zeal in the Arch Linux Extra repository, the zealdocs PPA for Ubuntu, and the @zealdocs/zeal COPR for Fedora. Building from source is only necessary for development or packaging. More options are listed on the download page, and Repology tracks Zeal packaging across distributions.

Build Dependencies

A C++20 compatible compiler, Git, CMake (3.25.1 or later at the time of writing; the README lists the current minimum), Ninja, and development packages for Qt 6 (including Qt WebEngine), libarchive, and SQLite are required.

Debian / Ubuntu

sudo apt-get install build-essential cmake extra-cmake-modules ninja-build \
    libarchive-dev libgl-dev libqt6opengl6-dev libqt6svg6-dev \
    libsqlite3-dev libvulkan-dev libxcb-keysyms1-dev qt6-webengine-dev

Fedora

sudo dnf install gcc-c++ cmake extra-cmake-modules ninja-build \
    qt6-qtbase-devel qt6-qtsvg-devel qt6-qtwebchannel-devel \
    qt6-qtwebengine-devel libarchive-devel sqlite-devel tomlplusplus-devel \
    mesa-libGL-devel vulkan-headers libX11-devel libxcb-devel \
    libxkbcommon-devel xcb-util-keysyms-devel

Arch Linux

sudo pacman -S --needed base-devel cmake extra-cmake-modules ninja \
    libarchive qt6-base qt6-svg qt6-webchannel qt6-webengine sqlite \
    tomlplusplus vulkan-headers xcb-util-keysyms

Building Zeal

Get the source code:

git clone https://github.com/zealdocs/zeal.git
cd zeal

Configure and build with CMake presets:

cmake --preset release
cmake --build --preset release

Each preset builds into build/<preset>, so the output lands in build/release here, and the binary can be run directly:

./build/release/zeal

Available presets:

Preset	Purpose
release	RelWithDebInfo build
debug	Debug build
dev	Development build: exports compile commands, enables sccache/ccache if available
release-portable / debug-portable / dev-portable	Portable build (settings stored next to the executable)
testing	Debug build with the test suite enabled (ctest --preset testing)

Using just (optional)

Common build commands are also available as just recipes, which is the recommended way to drive the build during development. Install it from your distribution repositories; the package is named just.

just configure          # configure with the default (dev) preset
just build              # build
just run                # build and launch Zeal
just test               # configure, build, and run the test suite
just preset=release build

Run just without arguments to see the full recipe list.

IDE Support

Any IDE with CMake presets support (Visual Studio Code with the CMake Tools extension, CLion, Qt Creator) picks up the project configuration automatically; simply select one of the presets listed above.

The bundled .clangd configuration expects the compilation database produced by the dev preset, so run just configure (or cmake --preset dev) once to enable clangd-based code completion and diagnostics.

Installing

sudo cmake --install build/release

Afterwards, reload the desktop database to register the dash:// and dash-plugin:// URL handlers:

sudo update-desktop-database