1 Mono is a software platform designed to allow developers to easily
2 create cross platform applications. It is an open source
3 implementation of Microsoft's .NET Framework based on the ECMA
4 standards for C# and the Common Language Runtime.
6 1. [Compilation and Installation](#compilation-and-installation)
7 2. [Using Mono](#using-mono)
8 3. [Directory Roadmap](#directory-roadmap)
9 4. [Contributing to Mono](#contributing-to-mono)
10 5. [Reporting bugs](#reporting-bugs)
11 6. [Configuration Options](#configuration-options)
12 7. [Working with Submodules](#working-with-submodules)
16 Officially supported architectures:
18 | debian-amd64 | debian-i386 | debian-armel | debian-armhf | windows-amd64 |
19 |-------------------------|------------------------|-------------------------|-------------------------|---------------------------|
20 | [![debian-amd64][1]][2] | [![debian-i386][3]][4] | [![debian-armel][5]][6] | [![debian-armhf][7]][8] | [![windows-amd64][9]][10] |
22 Community supported architectures:
25 |---------------------------|
26 | [![centos-s390x][11]][12] |
28 [1]: http://jenkins.mono-project.com/job/test-mono-mainline/label=debian-amd64/badge/icon
29 [2]: http://jenkins.mono-project.com/job/test-mono-mainline/label=debian-amd64/
30 [3]: http://jenkins.mono-project.com/job/test-mono-mainline/label=debian-i386/badge/icon
31 [4]: http://jenkins.mono-project.com/job/test-mono-mainline/label=debian-i386/
32 [5]: http://jenkins.mono-project.com/job/test-mono-mainline/label=debian-armel/badge/icon
33 [6]: http://jenkins.mono-project.com/job/test-mono-mainline/label=debian-armel/
34 [7]: http://jenkins.mono-project.com/job/test-mono-mainline/label=debian-armhf/badge/icon
35 [8]: http://jenkins.mono-project.com/job/test-mono-mainline/label=debian-armhf/
36 [9]: https://ci.appveyor.com/api/projects/status/1e61ebdfpbiei58v/branch/master?svg=true
37 [10]: https://ci.appveyor.com/project/ajlennon/mono-817/branch/master
38 [11]: http://jenkins.mono-project.com/job/test-mono-mainline-communityarchitectures/label=nealef-s390x-1/badge/icon
39 [12]: http://jenkins.mono-project.com/job/test-mono-mainline-communityarchitectures/label=nealef-s390x-1/
41 Compilation and Installation
42 ============================
47 Please see our guides for building Mono on
48 [Mac OS X](http://www.mono-project.com/docs/compiling-mono/mac/),
49 [Linux](http://www.mono-project.com/docs/compiling-mono/linux/) and
50 [Windows](http://www.mono-project.com/docs/compiling-mono/windows/).
52 Note that building from Git assumes that you already have Mono installed,
53 so please download and [install the latest Mono release](http://www.mono-project.com/download/)
54 before trying to build from Git. This is required because the Mono build
55 relies on a working Mono C# compiler to compile itself
56 (also known as [bootstrapping](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bootstrapping_(compilers))).
58 If you don't have a working Mono installation
59 ---------------------------------------------
61 If you don't have a working Mono installation, you can try a slightly
62 more risky approach: getting the latest version of the 'monolite' distribution,
63 which contains just enough to run the 'mcs' compiler. You do this with:
65 # Run the following line after ./autogen.sh
66 make get-monolite-latest
68 This will download and place the files appropriately so that you can then
73 The build will then use the files downloaded by `make get-monolite-latest`.
75 Testing and Installation
76 ------------------------
78 You can run the mono and mcs test suites with the command: `make check`.
80 Expect to find a few test suite failures. As a sanity check, you
81 can compare the failures you got with [https://wrench.mono-project.com/Wrench/](https://wrench.mono-project.com/Wrench/)
82 and [http://jenkins.mono-project.com/](http://jenkins.mono-project.com/).
84 You can now install mono with: `make install`
86 You can verify your installation by using the mono-test-install
87 script, it can diagnose some common problems with Mono's install.
88 Failure to follow these steps may result in a broken installation.
93 Once you have installed the software, you can run a few programs:
95 * `mono program.exe` runtime engine
97 * `mcs program.cs` C# compiler
99 * `monodis program.exe` CIL Disassembler
101 See the man pages for mono(1), mcs(1) and monodis(1) for further details.
106 * `data/` - Configuration files installed as part of the Mono runtime.
108 * `docs/` - Technical documents about the Mono runtime.
110 * `external/` - Git submodules for external libraries (Newtonsoft.Json, ikvm, etc).
112 * `man/` - Manual pages for the various Mono commands and programs.
114 * `mcs/` - The class libraries, compiler and tools
116 * `class/` - The class libraries (like System.*, Microsoft.Build, etc.)
118 * `mcs/` - The Mono C# compiler written in C#
120 * `tools/` - Tools like gacutil, ikdasm, mdoc, etc.
122 * `mono/` - The core of the Mono Runtime.
124 * `arch/` - Architecture specific portions.
126 * `cil/` - Common Intermediate Representation, XML
127 definition of the CIL bytecodes.
129 * `dis/` - CIL executable Disassembler
131 * `io-layer/` - The I/O layer and system abstraction for
132 emulating the .NET IO model.
134 * `metadata/` - The object system and metadata reader.
136 * `mini/` - The Just in Time Compiler.
138 * `runtime/` - A directory that contains the Makefiles that link the
139 mono/ and mcs/ build systems.
141 * `samples/` -Some simple sample programs on uses of the Mono
142 runtime as an embedded library.
144 * `scripts/` - Scripts used to invoke Mono and the corresponding program.
149 Before submitting changes to Mono, please review the [contribution
150 guidelines](http://www.mono-project.com/community/contributing/).
151 Please pay particular attention to the [Important
152 Rules](http://www.mono-project.com/community/contributing/#important-rules)
158 To submit bug reports, please use [Xamarin's
159 Bugzilla](https://bugzilla.xamarin.com/)
161 Please use the search facility to ensure the same bug hasn't already
162 been submitted and follow our
163 [guidelines](http://www.mono-project.com/community/bugs/make-a-good-bug-report/)
164 on how to make a good bug report.
166 Configuration Options
167 =====================
169 The following are the configuration options that someone building Mono
172 * `--with-sgen=yes,no` - Generational GC support: Used to enable or
173 disable the compilation of a Mono runtime with the SGen garbage
176 * On platforms that support it, after building Mono, you will have
177 both a `mono` binary and a `mono-sgen` binary. `mono` uses Boehm,
178 while `mono-sgen` uses the Simple Generational GC.
180 * `--with-gc=[included, boehm, none]` - Selects the default Boehm
181 garbage collector engine to use.
183 * *included*: (*slighty modified Boehm GC*) This is the default
184 value for the Boehm GC, and it's the most feature complete, it will
185 allow Mono to use typed allocations and support the debugger.
187 * *boehm*: This is used to use a system-install Boehm GC, it is
188 useful to test new features available in Boehm GC, but we do not
189 recommend that people use this, as it disables a few features.
192 Disables the inclusion of a garbage collector.
194 * This defaults to `included`.
196 * `--with-tls=__thread,pthread`
198 * Controls how Mono should access thread local storage,
199 pthread forces Mono to use the pthread APIs, while
200 __thread uses compiler-optimized access to it.
202 * Although __thread is faster, it requires support from
203 the compiler, kernel and libc. Old Linux systems do
204 not support with __thread.
206 * This value is typically pre-configured and there is no
207 need to set it, unless you are trying to debug a problem.
209 * `--with-sigaltstack=yes,no`
211 * **Experimental**: Use at your own risk, it is known to
212 cause problems with garbage collection and is hard to
213 reproduce those bugs.
215 * This controls whether Mono will install a special
216 signal handler to handle stack overflows. If set to
217 `yes`, it will turn stack overflows into the
218 StackOverflowException. Otherwise when a stack
219 overflow happens, your program will receive a
222 * The configure script will try to detect if your
223 operating system supports this. Some older Linux
224 systems do not support this feature, or you might want
225 to override the auto-detection.
227 * `--with-static_mono=yes,no`
229 * This controls whether `mono` should link against a
230 static library (libmono.a) or a shared library
233 * This defaults to `yes`, and will improve the performance
234 of the `mono` program.
236 * This only affects the `mono' binary, the shared
237 library libmono.so will always be produced for
238 developers that want to embed the runtime in their
241 * `--with-xen-opt=yes,no` - Optimize code for Xen virtualization.
243 * It makes Mono generate code which might be slightly
244 slower on average systems, but the resulting executable will run
245 faster under the Xen virtualization system.
247 * This defaults to `yes`.
249 * `--with-large-heap=yes,no` - Enable support for GC heaps larger than 3GB.
251 * This defaults to `no`.
253 * `--enable-small-config=yes,no` - Enable some tweaks to reduce memory usage
254 and disk footprint at the expense of some capabilities.
256 * Typically this means that the number of threads that can be created
257 is limited (256), that the maximum heap size is also reduced (256 MB)
258 and other such limitations that still make mono useful, but more suitable
259 to embedded devices (like mobile phones).
261 * This defaults to `no`.
263 * `--with-ikvm-native=yes,no` - Controls whether the IKVM JNI interface library is
266 * This is used if you are planning on
267 using the IKVM Java Virtual machine with Mono.
269 * This defaults to `yes`.
271 * `--with-profile4=yes,no` - Whether you want to build the 4.x profile libraries
274 * This defaults to `yes`.
276 * `--with-libgdiplus=installed,sibling,<path>` - Configure where Mono
277 searches for libgdiplus when running System.Drawing tests.
279 * It defaults to `installed`, which means that the
280 library is available to Mono through the regular
283 * `sibling` can be used to specify that a libgdiplus
284 that resides as a sibling of this directory (mono)
287 * Or you can specify a path to a libgdiplus.
289 * `--disable-shared-memory`
291 * Use this option to disable the use of shared memory in
292 Mono (this is equivalent to setting the MONO_DISABLE_SHM
293 environment variable, although this removes the feature
296 * Disabling the shared memory support will disable certain
297 features like cross-process named mutexes.
299 * `--enable-minimal=LIST`
301 * Use this feature to specify optional runtime
302 components that you might not want to include. This
303 is only useful for developers embedding Mono that
304 require a subset of Mono functionality.
305 * The list is a comma-separated list of components that
306 should be removed, these are:
309 Disables support for the Ahead of Time compilation.
312 Support for the Mono.Management assembly and the
313 VMAttach API (allowing code to be injected into
317 Disables COM support.
320 Drop debugging support.
323 Disables support for System.Decimal.
326 By default Mono comes with a full table
327 of messages for error codes. This feature
328 turns off uncommon error messages and reduces
332 Generics support. Disabling this will not
333 allow Mono to run any 2.0 libraries or
334 code that contains generics.
337 Removes the JIT engine from the build, this reduces
338 the executable size, and requires that all code
339 executed by the virtual machine be compiled with
340 Full AOT before execution.
343 Disables support for large assemblies.
346 Disables support for debug logging.
349 Support for Platform Invocation services,
350 disabling this will drop support for any
351 libraries using DllImport.
354 Removes support for MONO_IOMAP, the environment
355 variables for simplifying porting applications that
356 are case-insensitive and that mix the Unix and Windows path separators.
359 Disables support for the default profiler.
362 Drop System.Reflection.Emit support
364 * `reflection_emit_save`:
365 Drop support for saving dynamically created
366 assemblies (AssemblyBuilderAccess.Save) in
367 System.Reflection.Emit.
370 Disables support for AppDomain's shadow copies
371 (you can disable this if you do not plan on
375 Disables support for the Mono.SIMD intrinsics
379 Disables compilation for the SSA optimization
380 framework, and the various SSA-based optimizations.
383 * `--enable-loadedllvm`
385 * This enables the use of LLVM as a code generation engine
386 for Mono. The LLVM code generator and optimizer will be
387 used instead of Mono's built-in code generator for both
388 Just in Time and Ahead of Time compilations.
390 * See http://www.mono-project.com/docs/advanced/mono-llvm/ for the
391 full details and up-to-date information on this feature.
393 * You will need to have an LLVM built that Mono can link
396 * The `--enable-loadedllvm` variant will make the LLVM backend
397 into a runtime-loadable module instead of linking it directly
398 into the main mono binary.
400 * `--enable-big-arrays` - Enable use of arrays with indexes larger
403 * By default Mono has the same limitation as .NET on
404 Win32 and Win64 and limits array indexes to 32-bit
405 values (even on 64-bit systems).
407 * In certain scenarios where large arrays are required,
408 you can pass this flag and Mono will be built to
409 support 64-bit arrays.
411 * This is not the default as it breaks the C embedding
412 ABI that we have exposed through the Mono development
415 * `--enable-parallel-mark`
417 * Use this option to enable the garbage collector to use
418 multiple CPUs to do its work. This helps performance
419 on multi-CPU machines as the work is divided across CPUS.
421 * This option is not currently the default as we have
422 not done much testing with Mono.
426 * On Solaris and MacOS X builds a version of the Mono
427 runtime that contains DTrace probes and can
428 participate in the system profiling using DTrace.
430 * `--disable-dev-random`
432 * Mono uses /dev/random to obtain good random data for
433 any source that requires random numbers. If your
434 system does not support this, you might want to
437 * There are a number of runtime options to control this
438 also, see the man page.
442 * This configures the Mono compiler to generate code
443 suitable to be used by Google's Native Client:
444 http://code.google.com/p/nativeclient/
446 * Currently this is used with Mono's AOT engine as
447 Native Client does not support JIT engines yet.
449 Working With Submodules
450 =======================
452 Mono references several external git submodules, for example
453 a fork of Microsoft's reference source code that has been altered
454 to be suitable for use with the Mono runtime.
456 This section describes how to use it.
458 An initial clone should be done recursively so all submodules will also be
459 cloned in a single pass:
461 $ git clone --recursive git@github.com:mono/mono
463 Once cloned, submodules can be updated to pull down the latest changes.
464 This can also be done after an initial non-recursive clone:
466 $ git submodule update --init --recursive
468 To pull external changes into a submodule:
471 $ git pull origin <branch>
473 $ git add <submodule>
476 By default, submodules are detached because they point to a specific commit.
477 Use `git checkout` to move back to a branch before making changes:
480 $ git checkout <branch>
481 # work as normal; the submodule is a normal repo
482 $ git commit/push new changes to the repo (submodule)
485 $ git add <submodule> # this will record the new commits to the submodule
488 To switch the repo of a submodule (this should not be a common or normal thing
489 to do at all), first edit `.gitmodules` to point to the new location, then:
491 $ git submodule sync -- <path of the submodule>
492 $ git submodule update --recursive
493 $ git checkout <desired new hash or branch>
495 The desired output diff is a change in `.gitmodules` to reflect the
496 change in the remote URL, and a change in /<submodule> where you see
497 the desired change in the commit hash.