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bitcoin/doc/build-netbsd.md
Hennadii Stepanov f32685315c doc: Install pkgconf to find capnproto on NetBSD
On NetBSD, `pkgconf` is necessary to find `capnproto`. For example, see
https://github.com/bitcoin-core/libmultiprocess/pull/325.
2026-08-05 22:48:03 +01:00

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NetBSD Build Guide

Bitcoin Core is supported on all supported NetBSD releases.

This guide describes how to build bitcoind, command-line utilities, and GUI on the latest release.

Preparation

1. Install Required Dependencies

Install the required dependencies the usual way you install software on NetBSD. The example commands below use pkgin.

pkgin install git cmake boost

SQLite is required for the wallet:

pkgin install sqlite3

To build Bitcoin Core without the wallet, use -DENABLE_WALLET=OFF.

Cap'n Proto is needed for IPC functionality (see multiprocess.md):

pkgin install capnproto pkgconf

Compile with -DENABLE_IPC=OFF if you do not need IPC functionality.

See dependencies.md for a complete overview.

2. Clone Bitcoin Repo

Clone the Bitcoin Core repository to a directory. All build scripts and commands will run from this directory.

git clone https://github.com/bitcoin/bitcoin.git

3. Install Optional Dependencies

GUI Dependencies

Qt6

Bitcoin Core includes a GUI built with the cross-platform Qt Framework. To compile the GUI, we need to install the necessary parts of Qt, the libqrencode and pass -DBUILD_GUI=ON. Skip if you don't intend to use the GUI.

pkgin install qt6-qtbase qt6-qttools
libqrencode

The GUI will be able to encode addresses in QR codes unless this feature is explicitly disabled. To install libqrencode, run:

pkgin install qrencode

Otherwise, if you don't need QR encoding support, use the -DWITH_QRENCODE=OFF option to disable this feature in order to compile the GUI.

Notifications

ZeroMQ

Bitcoin Core can provide notifications via ZeroMQ. To compile ZMQ support, install the following dependency and pass -DWITH_ZMQ=ON when configuring.

pkgin install zeromq pkgconf

Test Suite Dependencies

There is an included test suite that is useful for testing code changes when developing. To run the test suite (recommended), you will need to have Python 3 installed:

pkgin install python313 py313-zmq lsof

When the lsof binary package was built for a different point release, it might be necessary to force its installation as follows:

echo "CHECK_OSABI=no" >> /etc/pkg_install.conf
pkgin install lsof

Building Bitcoin Core

1. Configuration

There are many ways to configure Bitcoin Core. Here is an example that explicitly disables the wallet and GUI:

cmake -B build -DENABLE_WALLET=OFF -DBUILD_GUI=OFF

Run cmake -B build -LH to see the full list of available options.

2. Compile

Build and run the tests:

cmake --build build     # Append "-j N" for N parallel jobs.
ctest --test-dir build  # Append "-j N" for N parallel tests.