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Building from Source

Build MediaGit from source when:

  • A pre-built binary is not available for your platform (e.g., Windows ARM64)
  • You want to build with custom feature flags
  • You are contributing to MediaGit development
  • You need to cross-compile for a different target

Prerequisites

All platforms

  • Rust 1.92.0 or later — install via rustup.rs 
    curl --proto '=https' --tlsv1.2 -sSf https://sh.rustup.rs | sh
rustup update
  • Git — to clone the repository

Linux

A C linker is needed (usually already installed):

# Debian/Ubuntu
sudo apt install build-essential

# Fedora/RHEL
sudo dnf install gcc

macOS

Install Xcode Command Line Tools:

xcode-select --install

Windows

Install Visual Studio Build Tools with the “Desktop development with C++” workload:

winget install Microsoft.VisualStudio.2022.BuildTools

Or install the full Visual Studio 2022.

Build

# Clone the repository
git clone https://github.com/winnyboy5/mediagit-core.git
cd mediagit-core

# Build release binaries
cargo build --release --bin mediagit --bin mediagit-server

Binaries are written to target/release/:

  • target/release/mediagit (Linux/macOS)
  • target/release/mediagit.exe (Windows)
  • target/release/mediagit-server / mediagit-server.exe

Build time: 3–8 minutes on first build; incremental rebuilds are much faster.

Install

Linux / macOS

# Install to ~/.cargo/bin (already on PATH if you used rustup)
cargo install --path crates/mediagit-cli --locked
cargo install --path crates/mediagit-server --locked

# Or copy manually
sudo cp target/release/mediagit /usr/local/bin/
sudo cp target/release/mediagit-server /usr/local/bin/

Windows

# Copy to a directory on your PATH
$dest = "$env:USERPROFILE\bin"
New-Item -ItemType Directory -Force -Path $dest | Out-Null
Copy-Item "target\release\mediagit.exe" -Destination $dest
Copy-Item "target\release\mediagit-server.exe" -Destination $dest

# Add to PATH if not already present
$userPath = [Environment]::GetEnvironmentVariable("Path", "User")
if ($userPath -notlike "*$dest*") {
    [Environment]::SetEnvironmentVariable("Path", "$userPath;$dest", "User")
    Write-Host "Added $dest to PATH. Restart your terminal."
}

Verify

mediagit --version
mediagit-server --version

Cross-Compilation

Linux ARM64 (from Linux x64)

Install cross:

cargo install cross --git https://github.com/cross-rs/cross

Build:

cross build --release --target aarch64-unknown-linux-gnu \
  --bin mediagit --bin mediagit-server

macOS Apple Silicon (from macOS Intel)

rustup target add aarch64-apple-darwin
cargo build --release --target aarch64-apple-darwin \
  --bin mediagit --bin mediagit-server

macOS Intel (from macOS Apple Silicon)

rustup target add x86_64-apple-darwin
cargo build --release --target x86_64-apple-darwin \
  --bin mediagit --bin mediagit-server

Windows x64 (from Linux)

Note: cross-rs does not support Windows targets. To build for Windows, use a Windows machine or a Windows GitHub Actions runner.

On Windows:

rustup target add x86_64-pc-windows-msvc
cargo build --release --target x86_64-pc-windows-msvc \
  --bin mediagit --bin mediagit-server

Windows ARM64

See Windows ARM64 Installation.

Checking MSRV

MediaGit’s Minimum Supported Rust Version (MSRV) is 1.92.0. Verify compatibility:

cargo +1.92.0 check --workspace --all-features

Running Tests

# Unit and integration tests (no external services)
cargo test --workspace

# Skip slow tests
cargo test --workspace -- --skip integration

# With all features
cargo test --workspace --all-features

Integration tests that require Docker (MinIO, Azurite, fake-gcs-server):

docker compose -f docker-compose.test.yml up -d

AWS_ACCESS_KEY_ID=minioadmin \
AWS_SECRET_ACCESS_KEY=minioadmin \
AWS_ENDPOINT_URL=http://localhost:9000 \
AWS_REGION=us-east-1 \
AZURE_STORAGE_CONNECTION_STRING="DefaultEndpointsProtocol=http;AccountName=devstoreaccount1;AccountKey=Eby8vdM02xNOcqFlqUwJPLlmEtlCDXJ1OUzFT50uSRZ6IFsuFq2UVErCz4I6tq/K1SZFPTOtr/KBHBeksoGMGw==;BlobEndpoint=http://localhost:10000/devstoreaccount1;" \
GCS_EMULATOR_HOST=http://localhost:4443 \
cargo test --ignored -p mediagit-storage -p mediagit-server

docker compose -f docker-compose.test.yml down -v

WSL2 Notes

Building on a Windows NTFS filesystem (e.g., /mnt/d/...) from WSL2 can cause Cargo’s incremental build fingerprinting to miss source changes. For reliable builds during development, use a WSL2-native path:

# Clone to WSL2 filesystem
git clone ... ~/projects/mediagit-core
cd ~/projects/mediagit-core
cargo build --release

The resulting Linux ELF binary can then be tested in WSL2. To build the Windows PE binary, run cargo build --release from a Windows terminal (cmd, PowerShell, or Windows Terminal).

See Also