building-linux.md

Build instructions for Linux using Docker

Prepare folder

Choose a folder for the future build, for example /home/user/TBuild. It will be named BuildPath in the rest of this document. All commands will be launched from Terminal.

Obtain your API credentials

You will require api_id and api_hash to access the Telegram API servers. To learn how to obtain them click here.

Clone source code and prepare libraries

Install poetry, go to BuildPath and run

git clone --recursive https://github.com/telegramdesktop/tdesktop.git
./tdesktop/Telegram/build/prepare/linux.sh

Building the project

Go to BuildPath/tdesktop and run (using your api_id and api_hash)

docker run --rm -it \
    -u $(id -u) \
    -v "$PWD:/usr/src/tdesktop" \
    tdesktop:centos_env \
    /usr/src/tdesktop/Telegram/build/docker/centos_env/build.sh \
    -D TDESKTOP_API_ID=YOUR_API_ID \
    -D TDESKTOP_API_HASH=YOUR_API_HASH

Or, to create a debug build, run (also using your api_id and api_hash)

docker run --rm -it \
    -u $(id -u) \
    -v "$PWD:/usr/src/tdesktop" \
    -e CONFIG=Debug \
    tdesktop:centos_env \
    /usr/src/tdesktop/Telegram/build/docker/centos_env/build.sh \
    -D TDESKTOP_API_ID=YOUR_API_ID \
    -D TDESKTOP_API_HASH=YOUR_API_HASH

The built files will be in the out directory.

Visual Studio Code integration

Ensure you've followed the instruction up to the Clone source code and prepare libraries step at least.

Open the repository in Visual Studio Code, install the Dev Containers extension and add the following to .vscode/settings.json (using your api_id and api_hash):

{
    "cmake.configureSettings": {
        "TDESKTOP_API_ID": "YOUR_API_ID",
        "TDESKTOP_API_HASH": "YOUR_API_HASH"
    }
}

After that, choose Reopen in Container via the menu triggered by the green button in bottom left corner and you're done.