mpv/DOCS/build-system-differences.md

Differences Between Meson and Waf

mpv currently supports two different build systems: waf and meson. In general, option names between both build systems are mostly the same. In most cases, --enable-foo in waf becomes -Dfoo=enabled in meson. Likewise, --disable-foo becomes -Dfoo=disabled. For the rest of this document, Waf options will be noted as --foo while meson options are noted as foo.

Universal Options

Meson has several universal options that you get for free. In some cases, these overlapped with custom waf options.

• --libmpv-static and --libmpv-shared were combined into one option: libmpv. Use default_library to control if you want to build static or shared libraries.
• Waf had a boolean --optimize option. In meson, this is a universal option, optimization, which can take several different values. In mpv's meson build, the default is 2.
• Instead of --debug-build, meson simply calls it debug. It is enabled by default.

Changed Options

• The legacy lua names (52, 52deb, etc.) for --lua are not supported in the meson build. Instead, pass the generic pkg-config values such as lua52, lua5.2, etc.
• --lgpl was changed to gpl. If gpl is false, the build is LGPL2.1+.
• --tests was removed since unit tests now explicitly require meson to run

Boolean Options

The following options are all booleans that accept true or false instead of enabled or disabled.

• build-date
• cplayer
• gpl
• libmpv
• ta-leak-report
• tests

Removed Options

There are options removed with no equivalent in the meson build.

• --asm was removed since it doesn't do anything.
• --android was removed since meson knows if the machine is android.
• --clang-compilation-database was removed. Meson can do this on its own by invoking ninja (ninja -t compdb).
• --tvos was removed since it doesn't do anything.
• --static-build was removed. Use default_library.
• --swift-static was removed. The swift library always dynamically links.

Renamed Options

These are some other options that were renamed.

• --gl-wayland was renamed to egl-wayland.
• --swift was renamed to swift-build.

Other

• The meson build supports passing the SOURCE_DATE_EPOCH environment variable during the compilation step for those who want reproducibility without having to disable the build date.
• The Configuration line shown by mpv -v does not show everything passed on cli since meson does not have any easy way to access a user's argv. Instead, it simply shows whatever the value of prefix is regardless if it was specified or not.