ref: 25be5c65611d99bfc9809010c4e4b2a9b9ee2507
dir: /README.md/
# RGBDS
RGBDS (Rednex Game Boy Development System) is a free assembler/linker package
for the Game Boy and Game Boy Color. It consists of:
- rgbasm (assembler)
- rgblink (linker)
- rgbfix (checksum/header fixer)
- rgbgfx (PNG‐to‐Game Boy graphics converter)
This is a fork of the original RGBDS which aims to make the programs more like
other UNIX tools.
## Building RGBDS
RGBDS requires yacc, flex, libpng and pkg-config to be installed.
On macOS, install the latter two with [Homebrew](http://brew.sh/):
```sh
brew install libpng pkg-config
```
On other Unixes, use the built-in package manager. For example, on Debian or
Ubuntu:
```sh
sudo apt-get install byacc flex pkg-config libpng-dev
```
You can test if libpng and pkg-config are installed by running
`pkg-config --cflags libpng`: if the output is a path, then you're good, and if
it outputs an error then you need to install them via a package manager.
To build the programs on a UNIX or UNIX-like system, just run in your terminal:
```sh
make
```
Then to install the compiled programs and manual pages, run (with appropriate
privileges):
```sh
make install
```
After installation, you can read the manuals with the man(1) command. E.g.,
```sh
man 1 rgbasm
```
Note: the variables described below can affect installation behavior when given
on the make command line. For example, to install rgbds in your home directory
instead of systemwide, run the following:
```sh
mkdir -p $HOME/{bin,man/man1,man/man7}
make install PREFIX=$HOME
```
`PREFIX`: Location where RGBDS will be installed. Defaults to `/usr/local`.
`BINPREFIX`: Location where the RGBDS programs will be installed. Defaults
to `${PREFIX}/bin`.
`MANPREFIX`: Location where the RGBDS man pages will be installed. Defaults
to `${PREFIX}/man`.
`Q`: Whether to quiet the build or not. To make the build more verbose, clear
this variable. Defaults to `@`.
`STRIP`: Whether to strip the installed binaries of debug symbols or not.
Defaults to `-s`.
`BINMODE`: Permissions of the installed binaries. Defaults to `555`.
`MANMODE`: Permissions of the installed manpages. Defaults to `444`.
## Installing RGBDS (macOS)
If you would prefer not to build RGBDS yourself, you may also install it using
[Homebrew](http://brew.sh/). To install the latest release, use:
```sh
brew install rgbds
```
To install RGBDS with all of the current changes in development (as seen on
GitHub), use:
```sh
brew install rgbds --HEAD
```
## Installing RGBDS (Windows)
Windows builds are available here: https://github.com/rednex/rgbds/releases
Copy the .exe files to C:\Windows\ or similar.