Tips for building from source

This is a page with tips for common build problems when trying to build Kakoune from source.

XLST problems

If you get xsltproc errors like:

a2x --no-xmllint -f manpage ../doc/kak.1.asciidoc
a2x: ERROR: "xsltproc"  --stringparam callout.graphics 0 --stringparam navig.graphics 0 --stringparam admon.textlabel 1 --stringparam admon.graphics 0  "/usr/local/Cellar/asciidoc/8.6.10_1/etc/asciidoc/docbook-xsl/manpage.xsl" "/Users/waldon/Code/builds/kakoune/doc/kak.1.xml" returned non-zero exit status 5
make: *** [../doc/kak.1.gz] Error 1

try running make like this (choose whichever path exists on your system):

# macOS, asciidoc installed with brew
export XML_CATALOG_FILES=/usr/local/etc/xml/catalog

# fedora linux
export XML_CATALOG_FILES=/etc/xml/catalog

make install

Sources: #2210, #954, #939 and others