Building ink

Requirements

C++17 compiler (GCC, Clang, or MSVC)
CMake 3.16+
Optional: OpenGL + GLEW (for GL backend)
Optional: Metal framework (macOS, for Metal backend)
Test-only: Google Test (fetched automatically via CMake FetchContent)

Build Options

Option	Default	Description
`INK_ENABLE_GL`	`ON`	Enable OpenGL 3.3+ backend
`INK_ENABLE_METAL`	`OFF`	Enable Metal backend (macOS only)
`INK_ENABLE_VULKAN`	`OFF`	Enable Vulkan backend (planned)
`INK_BUILD_TESTS`	`OFF`	Build the Google Test suite
`INK_BUILD_EXAMPLES`	`OFF`	Build example programs
`BUILD_SHARED_LIBS`	`OFF`	Build as shared library

Common Build Configurations

CPU-only (no GPU dependencies):

cmake -B build -DINK_ENABLE_GL=OFF
cmake --build build -j$(nproc)

With OpenGL and tests:

cmake -B build -DINK_ENABLE_GL=ON -DINK_BUILD_TESTS=ON
cmake --build build -j$(nproc)
ctest --test-dir build --output-on-failure

With examples:

cmake -B build -DINK_BUILD_EXAMPLES=ON
cmake --build build -j$(nproc)

Integration

As a CMake subdirectory:

add_subdirectory(third_party/ink)
target_link_libraries(my_app PRIVATE ink)

Manual: Add include/ to your include path and link against the built library (libink.a or ink.lib).

Building Documentation

To generate the full documentation (Doxygen API reference + Sphinx guides):

cmake -B build
cmake --build build --target docs

This runs Doxygen first (producing XML + standalone HTML), then Sphinx (producing the combined documentation site). Output is in docs/_build/sphinx/.

You can also run the tools manually:

# Doxygen only
doxygen Doxyfile

# Sphinx only (requires Doxygen XML to exist)
sphinx-build docs docs/_build/sphinx