When Should You Build DuckDB?
DuckDB binaries are available for stable and preview builds on the installation page.
In most cases, it's recommended to use these binaries.
When you are running on an experimental platform (e.g., Raspberry Pi) or you would like to build the project for an unmerged pull request,
you can build DuckDB from source based on the duckdb/duckdb repository hosted on GitHub.
This page explains the steps for building DuckDB.
Build Instructions
Prerequisites
New DuckDB 2.0 requires a C++17 compiler, while earlier versions required a C++11 compiler.
DuckDB needs CMake and a C++17-compliant compiler (e.g., GCC, Clang, Apple-Clang, MSVC). Additionally, we recommend using the Ninja build system, which automatically parallelizes the build process.
Building with the Makefile
A Makefile wraps the build process.
See Build Configuration for targets and configuration flags.
make
make release # same as plain make
make relassert
make debug
GEN=ninja make # for use with Ninja
BUILD_BENCHMARK=1 make # build with benchmarks
debugbuilds use a lot of disk space – make sure you have at least 25 GB available.
Speeding up Subsequent Builds
You can speed up subsequent builds using ccache. On macOS, you can install and configure it as follows:
brew install ccache
ccache -M 50G
Platforms
Platforms with Full Support
DuckDB fully supports Linux, macOS and Windows. Both x86_64 (amd64) and AArch64 (ARM64) builds are available for these platforms (except for macOS on x86_64, which only has partial support, see below), and almost all extensions are distributed for these platforms.
| Platform name | Description | Comment |
|---|---|---|
linux_amd64 |
Linux x86_64 (AMD64) with glibc | |
linux_arm64 |
Linux AArch64 (ARM64) with glibc | |
osx_arm64 |
macOS 12+ ARM64 (Apple Silicon CPUs) | |
windows_amd64 |
Windows 10+ x86_64 (AMD64) | |
windows_arm64 |
Windows 10+ AArch64 (ARM64) |
For these platforms, builds are available for both the latest stable version and the preview version (nightly build). In some circumstances, you may still want to build DuckDB from source, e.g., to test an unmerged pull request. For build instructions on these platforms, see:
Platforms with Partial Support
There are several partially supported platforms. For some platforms, DuckDB binaries and extensions (or a subset of extensions) are distributed. For others, building from source is possible.
| Platform name | Description |
|---|---|
osx_amd64 |
macOS 12+ x86_64 (AMD64) (Intel CPUs). DuckDB binaries and core extensions are distributed, but community extensions are no longer built for this platform. DuckDB 2.1 will stop supporting osx_amd64. |
linux_amd64_musl |
Linux x86_64 (AMD64) with musl libc, e.g., Alpine Linux |
linux_arm64_musl |
Linux AArch64 (ARM64) with musl libc, e.g., Alpine Linux |
linux_arm64_android |
Android AArch64 (ARM64) |
wasm_eh |
WebAssembly Exception Handling |
Below, we provide detailed build instructions for some platforms:
Platforms with Best Effort Support
| Platform name | Description |
|---|---|
freebsd_amd64 |
FreeBSD x86_64 (AMD64) |
freebsd_arm64 |
FreeBSD AArch64 (ARM64) |
wasm_mvp |
WebAssembly Minimum Viable Product |
windows_amd64_mingw |
Windows 10+ x86_64 (AMD64) with MinGW |
windows_arm64_mingw |
Windows 10+ AArch64 (ARM64) with MinGW |
These platforms are not covered by DuckDB's community support. For details on commercial support, see the support policy page.
See also the “Unofficial and Unsupported Platforms” page for details.
Outdated Platforms
Some platforms were supported in older DuckDB versions but are no longer supported.
| Platform name | Description |
|---|---|
linux_amd64_gcc4 |
Linux x86_64 (AMD64) with GCC 4, e.g., CentOS 7 |
linux_arm64_gcc4 |
Linux AArch64 (ARM64) with GCC 4, e.g., CentOS 7 |
windows_amd64_rtools |
Windows 10+ x86_64 (AMD64) for RTools |
DuckDB can also be built for end-of-life platforms such as macOS 11 and CentOS 7/8 using the instructions provided for macOS and Linux.
Troubleshooting Guides
We provide troubleshooting guides for building DuckDB: