System Prerequisites and Dependencies¶

Required Dependencies¶

Blade requires the following core dependencies for basic operation:

Operating System Support¶

Linux, macOS, and Windows are all fully supported platforms.

Linux: All major distributions (Ubuntu, CentOS, Debian, etc.)
macOS: macOS 10.12+ with Xcode, or just the Xcode Command Line Tools
Windows: Windows 10/11 with Visual Studio, or just the Visual Studio Build Tools (MSVC toolchain)
Developer Mode is recommended (Settings → Privacy & security → For developers) to enable NTFS symlink support; if not enabled, blade-bin symlink is skipped

Core Runtime Dependencies¶

Python: Version 3.10 or newer
Ninja Build System: Version 1.10+ (required as build backend)

Optional Performance Enhancements¶

Blade integrates with the following tools for enhanced build performance:

ccache: Version 3.1+ for compilation caching acceleration
distcc: Distributed compilation support for large-scale builds

Language-Specific Build Requirements¶

C/C++ Development¶

GCC: Version 4.0+ or compatible compiler (Clang supported), Linux/macOS
MSVC: Visual Studio 2019/2022 Build Tools, Windows
Standard Libraries: C++ standard library development packages

Java Development¶

JDK: Java Development Kit 1.6+ (OpenJDK or Oracle JDK)
Build Tools: Maven or Gradle for Java project management

Scala Development¶

Scala: Version 2.10+ for Scala language support
SBT: Scala Build Tool integration capabilities

Code Generation Tools¶

SWIG: Version 2.0+ (required for swig_library targets)
Flex: Version 2.5+ (required for lex_yacc targets)
Bison: Version 3.0+ (required for lex_yacc targets). Bison 2.x is no longer supported: its -d header omits the yyparse prototype, which downstream code needs. See the macOS note below.

Platform-Specific Notes¶

Linux Installation¶

Package Manager: Use system package manager (apt, yum, dnf)
Development Tools: Install build-essential or equivalent packages
Python Packages: Ensure pip and setuptools are available

macOS Installation¶

Xcode: A full Xcode installation works, but the Xcode Command Line Tools alone are sufficient — you do not need the full IDE. Install just the tools with xcode-select --install
Homebrew: Recommended for package management
Python: Use Homebrew Python or system Python with pip
Bison (only for lex_yacc_library targets): macOS ships bison 2.3 (frozen at GPLv2 and too old — see above). Install a current one with brew install bison. Homebrew keeps it keg-only (so it does not shadow the system bison), so add it to PATH ahead of /usr/bin: export PATH="$(brew --prefix bison)/bin:$PATH". flex from Homebrew is fine as-is.

Windows Installation¶

MSVC Toolchain: A full Visual Studio installation works; the standalone Visual Studio Build Tools are also sufficient — you do not need the full IDE. Either way, install the "MSVC v143" and "Windows SDK" components
Developer Mode: Recommended (Settings → Privacy & security → For developers) to enable NTFS symlink support. When not enabled, the blade-bin symlink is skipped and a warning is emitted; this does not affect normal builds
Python: Install Python 3.10+ from python.org
Ninja: Download from ninja-build.org or install via pip install ninja
Git: Required for SCM integration (revision embedding)
WinFlexBison (optional, for lex_yacc_library targets): Install via winget install -e --id WinFlexBison.win_flex_bison
Add the Blade directory to PATH, or launch via blade.bat

Version Compatibility Matrix¶

Component	Minimum Version	Recommended Version	Notes
Python	3.10	3.12+	v3 requires Python 3.10 or newer
Ninja	1.10	1.11+	Build backend; 1.10+ required for multi-output rules with depslog
GCC	4.0	7.0+	Clang 6.0+ also supported
JDK	1.6	11+	LTS versions recommended
Bison	3.0	3.8+	For `lex_yacc` targets; macOS stock 2.3 is too old (see macOS notes)
Flex	2.5	2.6+	For `lex_yacc` targets

Verification Commands¶

Verify installation of key dependencies:

# Check Python version
python --version

# Verify Ninja installation
ninja --version

# Confirm GCC availability
gcc --version

# Check Java installation
java -version