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Build System

Bitcoin Knots uses the same build system as Bitcoin Core. Since v29, the build system is CMake only (minimum CMake 3.22) — the old Autotools system (autogen.sh / configure) has been removed.

Quick Build (Linux)​

# Clone
git clone https://github.com/bitcoinknots/bitcoin.git
cd bitcoin
git checkout 29.x-knots

# Install build requirements (Debian/Ubuntu)
sudo apt-get install build-essential cmake pkgconf python3

# Install required dependencies
sudo apt-get install libevent-dev libboost-dev

# SQLite is required for descriptor wallets
sudo apt install libsqlite3-dev

# For the Qt GUI, also install:
sudo apt-get install qtbase5-dev qttools5-dev qttools5-dev-tools \
  librsvg2-bin imagemagick libqrencode-dev

# Build
cmake -B build
cmake --build build -j$(nproc)

Binaries are produced in build/bin/ (e.g. build/bin/bitcoind).

Building with CMake (v29+, the only supported system)​

cmake -B build            # Configure (add -D options here)
cmake --build build -j$(nproc)

CMake Options​

# Disable wallet
cmake -B build -DENABLE_WALLET=OFF

# Build the GUI (bitcoin-qt) — OFF by default
cmake -B build -DBUILD_GUI=ON

# Debug build
cmake -B build -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=Debug

# Enable ZMQ notifications
cmake -B build -DWITH_ZMQ=ON

Note that the GUI defaults to off (BUILD_GUI=OFF), so -DBUILD_GUI=ON is needed to build bitcoin-qt. The GUI uses Qt 5 by default; Qt 6 can be selected with -DWITH_QT_VERSION=6.

To list all available options with help text:

cmake -B build -LH

Dependencies​

Required​

DependencyPurpose
BoostGeneral utilities (headers only)
libeventNetworking, RPC/HTTP server

OpenSSL is not a dependency (it was removed upstream around Core 0.20).

Optional​

DependencyPurpose
SQLite3Descriptor wallets (required if wallet is enabled)
Berkeley DB 4.8Legacy wallets (off by default, -DWITH_BDB=ON)
Qt 5 (≥5.11.3)GUI (Qt 6 ≥6.2 optional via -DWITH_QT_VERSION=6)
libqrencodeQR codes in the GUI
ZeroMQNotifications (-DWITH_ZMQ=ON)
libminiupnpcUPnP port mapping (-DWITH_MINIUPNPC=ON)
systemtap-sdtUSDT tracepoints (-DWITH_USDT=ON)

Cross-Compilation​

Using the depends system:

# Build dependencies for the target platform
cd depends
make HOST=x86_64-w64-mingw32 -j$(nproc)
cd ..

# Configure with the generated toolchain file
cmake -B build --toolchain depends/x86_64-w64-mingw32/toolchain.cmake
cmake --build build -j$(nproc)

See depends/README.md for the list of supported host platform triplets.

Reproducible Builds (Guix)​

./contrib/guix/guix-build

Produces deterministic binaries that can be verified by multiple builders.

Running Tests​

# Unit tests
ctest --test-dir build

# Or run the unit test binary directly
build/bin/test_bitcoin

# Functional tests
build/test/functional/test_runner.py

# Specific test
build/test/functional/test_runner.py wallet_basic.py

See Also​