# Installation and Building

This section covers the build environment for Reldbase developers and the
commands to build and install the library. For running tests, see
[Testing](testing.md).

## Core build requirements

- C++23 compiler (clang++ 19 or later)
- CMake 3.31 or later
- PostgreSQL development libraries (libpq)

## Documentation requirements (optional)

- Doxygen
- Python 3 with the Sphinx packages listed in `docs/requirements.txt`

## Testing requirements

- Boost::ut for unit tests (fetched automatically via CMake's
  `FetchContent` when Reldbase is built as the top-level project)
- Catch2 for integration tests

## Dependencies

| Library | Version * | Purpose |
|---------|---------|---------|
| libpq | 17 | PostgreSQL client library |
| Catch2 | 3.15 | Testing framework (tests only) |
| Boost::ut | 2.3 | Testing framework (tests only) |

*\* Minimum version requirement.*

### Installing dependencies on Debian/Ubuntu

```bash
sudo apt-get install libpq-dev catch2
```

Boost::ut is fetched via CMake's `FetchContent`, so it does not need to be
installed.

## Building

```bash
git clone https://codeberg.org/perseas/reldbase.git
cd reldbase
cmake -B build -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=Debug
cmake --build build -j$(nproc)
```

### Build targets

| Target | Description |
|--------|-------------|
| `reltypes` | Relational `attribute` and `reltuple` modules |
| `reldb` | Database connection and query interface |
| `attribute_test`, `reltuple_test`, `reldb_test` | Unit tests (boost::ut) |
| `test_reldb` | Integration tests (Catch2) |
| `docs` | Documentation (built by default) |

The unit tests are built as part of the default target. The integration
suite requires a local PostgreSQL server and a test database; see
[Testing](testing.md).

## Using Reldbase from another project

Reldbase is consumed as a CMake subproject. Perseid, for example, pins a
known-good commit:

```cmake
include(FetchContent)
FetchContent_Declare(
    reldbase
    GIT_REPOSITORY https://codeberg.org/perseas/reldbase.git
    GIT_TAG <commit>
)
FetchContent_MakeAvailable(reldbase)
```

This provides the `reldbase::reltypes` and `reldbase::reldb` targets.
When Reldbase is included via `add_subdirectory()`, its own tests and
documentation are skipped, so only the two libraries are built.

## Documentation

The `docs` target builds the documentation by default.

```bash
pip install -r docs/requirements.txt
cmake --build build --target docs
```

This runs Doxygen to extract API docs, then Sphinx to generate the HTML
site in `build/docs/html/`.