How do i start contributing?

[ManasManushya]

HI there! I am ManasManushya and i wanna contribute to 0 A.D., can i get help from someone about how to build the code, how to use it in general, etc.
I have a Wildfire account and forked and cloned the repo. Now i still cant build it, I tried following the tutorials but it still doesnt work.
OS: Arch linux

[Asher]

1 hour ago, ManasManushya said:

HI there! I am ManasManushya and i wanna contribute to 0 A.D., can i get help from someone about how to build the code, how to use it in general, etc.
I have a Wildfire account and forked and cloned the repo. Now i still cant build it, I tried following the tutorials but it still doesnt work.
OS: Arch linux

Hello  Can you please provide some of the errors, so we can see specifically what is not working. Thanks! 

[ManasManushya]

yeah, I cannot build the project in my arch linux system. I got this error:
```
~/Documents/Projects_Collab/Farming++ main > cd build/workspaces                   
./update-workspaces.sh
cd gcc
make -j$(nproc)
cd: no such file or directory: build/workspaces
zsh: no such file or directory: ./update-workspaces.sh
cd: no such file or directory: gcc
make: *** No targets specified and no makefile found.  Stop.
```
I followed up using some AI responses (Sry for that) but it still doesnt do anything.
I have installed the dependencies that the documentation asks for.
Yet it still doesnt work. Sorry for my skill issue, im new to CMake but im still interested in contributing

[Asher]

So I am not super framilar with cmake either. But are you running the command from the root directory? I just asked ai, and have you check this?

You must run these commands from the root of the 0 A.D. source folder (where the build/ directory is located), not from inside build/workspaces or an unrelated project folder like Farming++. 

Check your current location and contents:

pwd

ls -R build/workspaces

You should see update-workspaces.sh and a gcc/ folder inside build/workspaces. If build/workspaces is empty or missing, your source download is incomplete. 

Edited 7 hours ago by Asher

[ManasManushya]

yeah sorry for that, i forgot to change the directory.

lemme redo it and see if it actually works

~/Documents/Projects_Collab/0ad main ?3 > pwd     
/home/Manas/Documents/Projects_Collab/0ad
~/Documents/Projects_Collab/0ad main ?3 > cd build/workspaces
./update-workspaces.sh
cd gcc
make -j$(nproc)
./update-workspaces.sh: line 46: ../../libraries/source/premake-core/bin/premake5: No such file or directory
ERROR: Premake failed
cd: no such file or directory: gcc
make: *** No targets specified and no makefile found.  Stop.

this is still the same case

[Asher]

Maybe try updating or reinstalling cmake  

Another thing the ai said: 

Common Causes for "No Such File"

Wrong Root: You are inside ~/Documents/Projects_Collab/Farming++ which appears to be a different project. Ensure you cd into the actual 0 A.D. source folder first. 

Incomplete Download: If you downloaded a tarball, ensure you extracted both the unix-build and unix-data archives. If using Git/SVN, ensure the checkout finished successfully.

Script Permissions: If the file exists but fails to run, make it executable:

chmod +x build/workspaces/update-workspaces.sh

[Asher]

From you latest error, the ai said you need to install Premake 5 binary

[ManasManushya]

ok, lemme try it

 

[ManasManushya]

Still the same error:
~/Doc/Projects_Collab/0ad/build/workspaces main ?3 > ./update-workspaces.sh
cd gcc
make -j$(nproc)
./update-workspaces.sh: line 46: ../../libraries/source/premake-core/bin/premake5: No such file or directory
ERROR: Premake failed
cd: no such file or directory: gcc
make: *** No targets specified and no makefile found.  Stop.

I had just installed premake

[Asher]

So, it looks like premake 5 binary is not in the correct folder, or cmake can't find it. Here's what ai said: 

The error ../../libraries/source/premake-core/bin/premake5: No such file or directory confirms the Premake 5 binary is missing from your source tree.  The 0 A.D. build script expects this specific file to exist to generate the Makefiles. 

1. Download and Place the Binary (Recommended Fix)

You must manually download the Premake 5 binary and place it in the exact directory the script expects. 

Navigate to the root of your 0 A.D. source folder:

cd ~/Documents/Projects_Collab/0ad

Create the expected directory structure:

mkdir -p libraries/source/premake-core/bin

Download the latest Premake 5 binary (Beta 2 is currently stable for 0 A.D.):

cd libraries/source/premake-core/bin wget https://github.com/premake/premake-core/releases/download/v5.0.0-beta2/premake-5.0.0-beta2-linux.tar.gz

Extract and Verify:

tar -xzf premake-5.0.0-beta2-linux.tar.gz # Ensure the file is named exactly 'premake5' ls -l premake5 chmod +x premake5

Return to root and retry the build:

cd ../../../../ cd build/workspaces ./update-workspaces.sh cd gcc make -j$(nproc)

[guerringuerrin]

@ManasManushya just in case, did you run 0ad/libraries/build-source-libs.sh script before trying to compile?

[ManasManushya]

No

[Perzival12]

30 minutes ago, Asher said:

So, it looks like premake 5 binary is not in the correct folder, or cmake can't find it. Here's what ai said: 

The error ../../libraries/source/premake-core/bin/premake5: No such file or directory confirms the Premake 5 binary is missing from your source tree.  The 0 A.D. build script expects this specific file to exist to generate the Makefiles. 

1. Download and Place the Binary (Recommended Fix)

You must manually download the Premake 5 binary and place it in the exact directory the script expects. 

Navigate to the root of your 0 A.D. source folder:

cd ~/Documents/Projects_Collab/0ad

Create the expected directory structure:

mkdir -p libraries/source/premake-core/bin

Download the latest Premake 5 binary (Beta 2 is currently stable for 0 A.D.):

cd libraries/source/premake-core/bin wget https://github.com/premake/premake-core/releases/download/v5.0.0-beta2/premake-5.0.0-beta2-linux.tar.gz

Extract and Verify:

tar -xzf premake-5.0.0-beta2-linux.tar.gz # Ensure the file is named exactly 'premake5' ls -l premake5 chmod +x premake5

Return to root and retry the build:

cd ../../../../ cd build/workspaces ./update-workspaces.sh cd gcc make -j$(nproc)

I really wouldn’t recommend running commands that AI advises you to run; it literally has no idea what it’s talking about.

[guerringuerrin]

24 minutes ago, ManasManushya said:

No

Ok. 
Based on the output you provided, my guess is that you haven't run the script yet, so you're probably missing some of the libraries required to build the code.
As explained here, before you can build the code, you need to install the required dependencies and run the script I mentioned.

[Asher]

28 minutes ago, Perzival12 said:

I really wouldn’t recommend running commands that AI advises you to run; it literally has no idea what it’s talking about.

But it is searching the internet to know what commands to run. I guess, use with caution 

[Stan`]

Just for info 0 A.D doesn't use Cmake. I would also advise against putting spaces in folder names.

5 hours ago, guerringuerrin said:

Ok. 
Based on the output you provided, my guess is that you haven't run the script yet, so you're probably missing some of the libraries required to build the code.
As explained here, before you can build the code, you need to install the required dependencies and run the script I mentioned.

That's indeed what's missing.