configure.py is the root script used to prepare a standalone node.gl virtual
environment for casual users and developers. If you are a packager, you
probably do not want to use this script and instead package every component
independently using their respective build systems (meson for libnodegl and
ngl-tools, pip for pynodegl and pynodegl-utils).
The goal of this script is to have an isolated environment without being intrusive on the host system, being as simple and straightforward as possible for the end-user. The script is written in Python3 so you will need to have it installed on your system.
./configure.py -h displays all the controls available for that environment.
This command by default creates a Python Virtual environment in the venv
directory (unless customized to something else with the -p option). In this
virtual environment, pip is installed, along with meson (needed for
building some of our components) and various other module requirements. A few
external dependencies such as sxplayer are then pulled, and a Makefile is
generated.
The generated Makefile (compatible NMake on Windows and GNU/Make on other
systems) provides a build chain for compiling and installing the node.gl
components within this environment.
Running make (or nmake) is re-entrant, so developers can do their
modifications to the code and iterate easily. It is possible to iterate faster
by selecting the specific build chain rule, for example: make nodegl-install.
After the build, it is possible to enter the environment with the provided
activation command to access the tools (ngl-control, ngl-desktop, etc.), as
well as importing pynodegl and pynodegl-utils within Python.
The temporary build files are located in builddir. This means that if the
virtual env is activated, you can also typically manually run meson commands
from here.