Installation

The README has the quickstart. This document covers the install layout, PREFIX / DESTDIR overrides, and the Windows CMake / MSVC build.

Release artifacts

Each tagged release attaches the following to the GitHub release, each with a .sha256 sidecar:

The macOS and Windows packages are built on native runners — no cross-compile, no universal-binary merge. The libpakka-* zips are the same Windows build with the CLI omitted — static lib, header, and pakka(3) manpage only — for integrators embedding libpakka.

From the source tarball (Unix)

Each tagged release attaches a pakka-X.Y.Z.tar.gz source tarball and a SHA-256 sidecar to the GitHub release. Grab them, verify the checksum, build, and install:

$ curl -fLO https://github.com/ajbonner/pakka/releases/download/v1.9.0/pakka-1.9.0.tar.gz
$ curl -fLO https://github.com/ajbonner/pakka/releases/download/v1.9.0/pakka-1.9.0.tar.gz.sha256
$ shasum -a 256 -c pakka-1.9.0.tar.gz.sha256
$ tar xzf pakka-1.9.0.tar.gz
$ cd pakka-1.9.0
$ make

Then pick one install flavor:

$ sudo make install                    # system-wide to /usr/local
$ make install PREFIX=$HOME/.local     # user-only, no root
$ make install DESTDIR=/tmp/stage      # packager staging (.deb / .rpm / pkg)

PREFIX defaults to /usr/local, which is root-owned on most systems — plain make install will fail with “permission denied” without sudo or a user-writable PREFIX. make uninstall reverses any of the above (pass the same PREFIX / DESTDIR you installed with).

Requires GNU make and a C99 compiler. On BSD systems install gmake and use it in place of make. The build is dependency-free at runtime — the DEFLATE codec is bundled.

Installed layout (Unix)

GNU install conventions, via the GNU install dirs:

Windows zip layout

Releases ship pakka-X.Y.Z-windows-x64.zip and pakka-X.Y.Z-windows-x86.zip, both produced via cpack -G ZIP against the MSVC build. Layout (x64 shown; x86 is identical with the -x64 suffix swapped for -x86):

pakka-1.9.0-windows-x64\
  bin\pakka.exe
  lib\pakka.lib                       # static lib for integrators
  include\pakka.h                     # public C header
  share\man\man1\pakka.1
  share\man\man3\pakka.3
  share\doc\pakka\README.md
  share\doc\pakka\LICENSE

The library-only libpakka-X.Y.Z-windows-x64.zip and libpakka-X.Y.Z-windows-x86.zip are the same build configured with PAKKA_BUILD_CLI=OFF — no pakka.exe, no pakka(1) manpage. For C/C++ integrators embedding libpakka who don’t need the CLI:

libpakka-1.9.0-windows-x64\
  lib\pakka.lib                       # static library
  include\pakka.h                     # public C header
  share\man\man3\pakka.3
  share\doc\pakka\README.md
  share\doc\pakka\LICENSE

macOS archive layout

Releases also ship native macOS binary archives — a .tar.gz for Intel (x86_64) and Apple Silicon (arm64), produced via make install into a staged package root. Layout (Apple Silicon shown):

pakka-1.9.0-macos-arm64/
  bin/pakka
  lib/libpakka.a
  include/pakka.h
  share/man/man1/pakka.1
  share/man/man3/pakka.3
  share/doc/pakka/README.md
  share/doc/pakka/LICENSE

From source (git clone)

For contributors:

$ git clone https://github.com/ajbonner/pakka.git
$ cd pakka
$ make

make produces two artifacts:

• ./pakka — the command-line binary documented in the README.
• build/lib-prod/libpakka.a — a static library exposing pakka’s archive operations as a C99 API. The public header is at include/pakka.h; every exported symbol is prefixed pakka_ and make symbol-audit fails the build if anything else leaks out.

make dist produces the release tarball locally (pakka-X.Y.Z.tar.gz + SHA-256 sidecar) via git archive HEAD.

Building on Windows (MSVC)

The Makefile is Unix-only. On Windows, build via CMake + cl.exe from a Developer Command Prompt (or after running vcvarsall.bat x64):

> cmake -B build\cmake -G Ninja .
> cmake --build build\cmake

Produces build\cmake\pakka.exe. The CMake build compiles the same src/*.c (including src/pk3file.c and the vendored src/vendor/sdefl / src/vendor/sinfl DEFLATE codec, or <zlib.h> with -DPAKKA_USE_ZLIB=ON) plus the src/vendor/wingetopt (getopt) and src/vendor/dirent (opendir / readdir) polyfills under _WIN32.

Supported Windows floor is Windows XP SP3, built with the VS 2017 v141_xp toolset for releases targeting XP / Vista / 7. CI uses VS 2026 on Windows Server 2025. The source intentionally avoids API calls that require later Windows versions so the same tree builds against either toolset.

DEFLATE codec backend

The DEFLATE codec is selectable at build time. Default is the bundled sdefl + sinfl single-header encoder / decoder pair (no external dependency, ~1400 LOC vendored under src/vendor/):

$ make                            # default: bundled codec
> cmake -B build/cmake .          # same on Windows

Integrators who already link zlib can route DEFLATE through it instead and skip the duplicate codec code:

$ make PAKKA_DEFLATE_BACKEND=zlib
> cmake -B build/cmake -DPAKKA_USE_ZLIB=ON .

Both backends produce byte-interchangeable raw RFC 1951 DEFLATE streams.