Packaging

This guide is for distribution packagers. Start with the build dependencies; Meson and Ninja can build directly without Nix or just.

Stage an installation

meson setup build-release --prefix=/usr --buildtype=release -Dcpp_std=c++23
meson compile -C build-release -j 4
meson test -C build-release --print-errorlogs
DESTDIR="$PWD/pkg" meson install -C build-release --no-rebuild

Use the distribution's usual prefix, libdir and compiler flags. Avoid -march=native for general-purpose packages. LTO builds need a matching compiler-aware archiver, such as gcc-ar or llvm-ar.

Installed files

Component	Typical path with prefix /usr
Executable	/usr/bin/cressida
Renderer library	/usr/lib/libcressida-render.so
Development headers	/usr/include/cressida/
Complete assets	/usr/share/cressida/assets/
Desktop entry	/usr/share/applications/dev.lysec.Cressida.desktop
Application icon	/usr/share/icons/hicolor/scalable/apps/dev.lysec.Cressida.svg
License notices	/usr/share/licenses/cressida/

Meson supports other libdirs. Ship the renderer and executable from the same build; there is no versioned renderer ABI. The installed executable has a relative runpath for its renderer, so it does not need LD_LIBRARY_PATH.

Keep the complete assets tree, including fonts, icon metadata, emoji data, themes and demo media. Preserve the MIT license and bundled notices for Tabler icons, emoji aliases, theme palettes and Wuffs. Development headers can be split into a development package.

Desktop runtime

Provide a Wayland compositor, EGL/GLES drivers, usable Fontconfig fonts including color emoji, CA certificates, session D-Bus and the shared-mime-info database. The default browser and xdg-open handle sign-in and external links. Make xdg-open available at build time because its resolved path is recorded.

Recommended integrations include a Secret Service keyring, a desktop notification service, a tray host and XDG portal backends for Settings and FileChooser. The client does not install its own keyring, notification service or autostart entry.

Do not ship user state, credentials or runtime sockets. Custom themes under the user's configuration directory must stay user-owned. Installed packages should find their assets without a CRESSIDA_ASSETS_DIR override.

For deterministic emoji fallback, configure the actual runtime font path supplied by the distribution, for example:

meson configure build-release -Demoji_font=/usr/share/fonts/noto/NotoColorEmoji.ttf

Never compile a temporary staging path into that option.

CI and release scope

CI covers native glibc builds on x86_64 and aarch64, plus an x86_64 musl build in Alpine edge. The musl build links dynamically to system libraries; it is not a portable static package.

The client release workflow prepares a draft source release with a cressida-VERSION.tar.xz archive and SHA256SUMS after its checks pass. A maintainer publishes it. There is no automatic distribution-repository upload.