If you've never built the engine before, first see Setting up the Engine development environment.

Contents

Depending on the platform you are making changes for, you may be interested in all or only some of the sections below:

General Compilation Tips

  • For local development and testing, it's generally preferable to use --unopt builds. These builds will have additional logging and checks enabled, and generally use build and link flags that lead to faster compilation and better debugging symbols. If you are trying to do performance testing with a local build, do not use the --unopt flag.
  • Link Time Optimization: Optimized builds also perform Link Time Optimization of all binaries. This makes the linker take a lot of time and memory to produce binaries. If you need optimized binaries but don't want to perform LTO, add the --no-lto flag.
  • Android and iOS expect both a host and android (or ios) build. It is critical to recompile the host build after upgrading the Dart SDK (e.g. via a gclient sync after merging up to head), since artifacts from the host build need to be version matched to artifacts in the Android/iOS build.
  • Web, Desktop, and Fuchsia builds have only one build target (i.e. host or fuchsia).
  • Make sure to exclude the out directory from any backup scripts, as many large binary artifacts are generated. This is also generally true for all of the directories outside of the engine/src/flutter directory.

Using a custom Dart SDK

When targeting the host and desktop, on CI we use a pre-built Dart SDK vended by the Dart team. To build and use the SDK from the Dart sources downloaded by gclient sync, after editing those source files, pass the flag --no-prebuilt-dart-sdk to //flutter/tools/gn.

Compiling for Android (from macOS or Linux)

These steps build the engine used by flutter run for Android devices.

Run the following steps, from the src directory created in Setting up the Engine development environment:

  1. git pull upstream main in src/flutter to update the Flutter Engine repo.

  2. gclient sync to update dependencies.

  3. Prepare your build files

    • ./flutter/tools/gn --android --unoptimized for device-side executables.
    • ./flutter/tools/gn --android --android-cpu arm64 --unoptimized for newer 64-bit Android devices.
    • ./flutter/tools/gn --android --android-cpu x86 --unoptimized for x86 emulators.
    • ./flutter/tools/gn --android --android-cpu x64 --unoptimized for x64 emulators.
    • ./flutter/tools/gn --unoptimized for host-side executables, needed to compile the code.
      • On Apple Silicon (“M” chips), add --mac-cpu arm64 to avoid using emulation. This will generate host_debug_unopt_arm64.

💡 TIP: When developing on a Mac with ARM (M CPU), prefer host_debug_unopt_arm64.

You can continue to use host_debug_unopt (required for Intel Macs), but the engine will be run under Rosetta which may be slower. See Developing with Flutter on Apple Silicon for more information.

  1. Build your executables
    • ninja -C out/android_debug_unopt for device-side executables.
    • ninja -C out/android_debug_unopt_arm64 for newer 64-bit Android devices.
    • ninja -C out/android_debug_unopt_x86 for x86 emulators.
    • ninja -C out/android_debug_unopt_x64 for x64 emulators.
    • ninja -C out/host_debug_unopt (or ninja -C out/host_debug_unopt_arm64, see above) for host-side executables.
    • These commands can be combined. Ex: ninja -C out/android_debug_unopt && ninja -C out/host_debug_unopt
    • For MacOS, you will need older version of XCode(9.4 or below) to compile android_debug_unopt and android_debug_unopt_x86. If you only care about x64, you can ignore this

This builds a debug-enabled (“unoptimized”) binary configured to run Dart in checked mode (“debug”). There are other versions, see Flutter's modes.

If you're going to be debugging crashes in the engine, make sure you add android:debuggable="true" to the <application> element in the android/AndroidManifest.xml file for the Flutter app you are using to test the engine.

See The flutter tool for instructions on how to use the flutter tool with a local engine. You will typically use the android_debug_unopt build to debug the engine on a device, and android_debug_unopt_x64 to debug in on a simulator. Modifying dart sources in the engine will require adding a dependency_override section in you app's pubspec.yaml as detailed here.

Note that if you use particular android or ios engine build, you will need to have corresponding host build available next to it: if you use android_debug_unopt, you should have built host_debug_unopt, android_profile -> host_profile, etc. One caveat concerns cpu-flavored builds like android_debug_unopt_x86: you won't be able to build host_debug_unopt_x86 as that configuration is not supported. What you are expected to do is to build host_debug_unopt and symlink host_debug_unopt_x86 to it.

Compiling everything that matters on Linux

The following script will update all the builds that matter if you're developing on Linux and testing on Android and created the .gclient file in ~/dev/engine:

set -ex

cd ~/dev/engine/src/flutter
git fetch upstream
git rebase upstream/main
gclient sync
cd ..

flutter/tools/gn --unoptimized --runtime-mode=debug
flutter/tools/gn --android --unoptimized --runtime-mode=debug
flutter/tools/gn --android --runtime-mode=profile
flutter/tools/gn --android --runtime-mode=release

cd out
find . -mindepth 1 -maxdepth 1 -type d | xargs -n 1 sh -c 'ninja -C $0 || exit 255'

For --runtime-mode=profile build, please also consider adding --no-lto option to the gn command. It will make linking much faster with a small sacrifice on the binary size and memory usage (which probably doesn't matter for debugging or performance benchmark purposes.)

Compiling for iOS (from macOS)

These steps build the engine used by flutter run for iOS devices.

Run the following steps, from the src directory created in the steps above:

  1. git pull upstream main in src/flutter to update the Flutter Engine repo.

  2. gclient sync to update dependencies.

  3. ./flutter/tools/gn --ios --unoptimized to prepare build files for device-side executables (or --ios --simulator --unoptimized for simulator).

    • This also produces an Xcode project for working with the engine source code at out/ios_debug_unopt/flutter_engine.xcodeproj
    • For a discussion on the various flags and modes, see Flutter's modes.
    • Add the --simulator-cpu=arm64 argument for an arm64 Mac simulator to output to out/ios_debug_sim_unopt_arm64.

  4. ./flutter/tools/gn --unoptimized to prepare the build files for host-side executables.

    • On Apple Silicon (“M” chips), add --mac-cpu arm64 to avoid using emulation. This will generate host_debug_unopt_arm64.

  5. ninja -C out/ios_debug_unopt && ninja -C out/host_debug_unopt to build all artifacts (use out/ios_debug_sim_unopt for Simulator).

See The flutter tool for instructions on how to use the flutter tool with a local engine. You will typically use the ios_debug_unopt build to debug the engine on a device, and ios_debug_sim_unopt to debug in on a simulator. Modifying dart sources in the engine will require adding a dependency_override section in you app's pubspec.yaml as detailed here.

See also instructions for debugging the engine in a Flutter app in Xcode.

Compiling for macOS or Linux

These steps build the desktop embedding, and the engine used by flutter test on a host workstation.

  1. git pull upstream main in src/flutter to update the Flutter Engine repo.

  2. gclient sync to update your dependencies.

  3. ./flutter/tools/gn --unoptimized to prepare your build files.

    • --unoptimized disables C++ compiler optimizations. On macOS, binaries are emitted unstripped; on Linux, unstripped binaries are emitted to an exe.unstripped subdirectory of the build.

  4. ninja -C out/host_debug_unopt to build a desktop unoptimized binary.

    • If you skipped --unoptimized, use ninja -C out/host_debug instead.

See The flutter tool for instructions on how to use the flutter tool with a local engine. You will typically use the host_debug_unopt build in this setup. Modifying dart sources in the engine will require adding a dependency_override section in you app's pubspec.yaml as detailed here.

Compiling for Windows

[!WARNING] You can only build selected binaries on Windows (mainly gen_snapshot and the desktop embedding).

On Windows, ensure that the engine checkout is not deeply nested. This avoid the issue of the build scripts working with excessively long paths.

  1. Make sure you have Visual Studio installed (non-Googlers only). Debugging Tools for Windows 10 must be installed.

  2. git pull upstream main in src/flutter to update the Flutter Engine repo.

  3. Ensure long path support is enabled on your machine. Launch PowerShell as an administrator and run:

Set-ItemProperty -Path "HKLM:\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\FileSystem" -Name "LongPathsEnabled" -Value 1 -Force
  1. If you are not a Google employee, you must set the following environment variables to point the depot tools at Visual Studio:
DEPOT_TOOLS_WIN_TOOLCHAIN=0
GYP_MSVS_OVERRIDE_PATH="C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio\2019\Community" # (or your location for Visual Studio)
WINDOWSSDKDIR="C:\Program Files (x86)\Windows Kits\10" # (or your location for Windows Kits)

Also, be sure that Python27 is before any other python in your Path.

  1. gclient sync to update your dependencies.

  2. switch to src/ directory.

  3. python .\flutter\tools\gn --unoptimized to prepare your build files.

    • If you are only building gen_snapshot: python .\flutter\tools\gn [--unoptimized] --runtime-mode=[debug|profile|release] [--android].

  4. ninja -C .\out\<dir created by previous step> to build.

    • If you used a non-debug configuration, use ninja -C .\out\<dir created by previous step> gen_snapshot. Release and profile are not yet supported for the desktop shell.

Compiling for Fuchsia

Build components for Fuchsia

  1. Building fuchsia is only supported on linux. You need to update engine/.gclient, or ../.gclient if current directory is engine/src, with custom_vars.
solutions = [
  {
    # ...
    "custom_vars": {
      "download_fuchsia_deps": True,
      "run_fuchsia_emu": True,
    },
  },
]

You may ignore "run_fuchsia_emu": True if you won't run tests locally.

Run gclient sync.

[!WARNING] When running tests locally, you will also need kvm enabled, or nested virtualization on the gcloud VMs. Fuchsia and the tests will all be executed on the qemu.

  1. Prepare and build
./flutter/tools/gn --fuchsia --no-lto
  • It will create a out/fuchsia_debug_x64.
  • Use --fuchsia-cpu arm64 to build components for arm64. It will be created in a folder out/fuchsia_debug_arm64.
  • Use --runtime-mode=release or --runtime-mode=profile to select other profiles as other platforms.
  • Ignore --no-lto to use lto or link-time optimization.
ninja -C out/fuchsia_debug_x64 -k 0
  • It builds all but ignores known errors.
  • Or specify following targets to avoid using -k 0.
flutter/shell/platform/fuchsia:fuchsia \
flutter/shell/platform/fuchsia/dart_runner:dart_runner_tests \
fuchsia_tests
  • Use autoninja if it's available.
  • -C out/fuchsia_release_x64 for release build; other configurations are similar with a different folder name in out/.
  1. Run all tests locally
python3 flutter/tools/fuchsia/with_envs.py flutter/testing/fuchsia/run_tests.py
  • It runs the tests in out/fuchsia_debug_x64 by default. According to the configuration, it may take 5 minutes with regular gtest output to the terminal.
  • Add fuchsia_release_x64 at the end of the command for release build; other configurations are similar with a different folder name in out/.
python3 flutter/tools/fuchsia/with_envs.py flutter/testing/fuchsia/run_tests.py fuchsia_release_x64

Compiling for the Web

For building the engine for the Web we use the felt tool.

To test Flutter with a local build of the Web engine, add --local-web-sdk=wasm_release to your flutter command, e.g.:

flutter run --local-web-sdk=wasm_release -d chrome
flutter test --local-web-sdk=wasm_release test/path/to/your_test.dart

Compiling for the Web on Windows

Compiling the web engine might take a few extra steps on Windows. Use cmd.exe and “run as administrator”.

  1. Make sure you have Visual Studio installed. Set the following environment variables. For Visual Studio use the path of the version you installed.
    • GYP_MSVS_OVERRIDE_PATH = "C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio\2019\Community"
    • GYP_MSVS_VERSION = 2017
  2. Make sure, depot_tools, ninja and python are installed and added to the path. Also set the following environment variable for depot tools:
    • DEPOT_TOOLS_WIN_TOOLCHAIN = 0
    • Tip: if you get a python error try to use Python 2 instead of 3
  3. git pull upstream main in src/flutter to update the Flutter Engine repo.
  4. gclient sync to update your dependencies.
    • Tip: If you get a git authentication errors on this step try Git Bash instead
  5. python .\flutter\tools\gn --unoptimized --full-dart-sdk to prepare your build files.
  6. ninja -C .\out\<dir created by previous step> to build.

To test Flutter with a local build of the Web engine, add --local-web-sdk=wasm_release to your flutter command, e.g.:

flutter run --local-web-sdk=wasm_release -d chrome
flutter test --local-web-sdk=wasm_release test/path/to/your_test.dart

For testing the engine again use felt tool this time with felt_windows.bat.

felt_windows.bat test

Compiling for testing

Dart tests

To run dart tests, build the engine:

flutter/tools/gn --unoptimized
ninja -C out/host_debug_unopt/

execute run_tests for native:

python3 flutter/testing/run_tests.py --type dart

and felt for web:

cd flutter/lib/web_ui
dev/felt test [test file]

Troubleshooting Compile Errors

Version Solving Failed

From time to time, as the Dart versions increase, you might see dependency errors such as:

The current Dart SDK version is 2.7.0-dev.0.0.flutter-1ef444139c.

Because ui depends on <a pub package> 1.0.0 which requires SDK version >=2.7.0 <3.0.0, version solving failed.

Running gclient sync does not update the tags, there are two solutions:

  1. under engine/src/third_party/dart run git fetch --tags origin
  2. or run gclient sync with with tags parameter: gclient sync --with_tags

See also: Debugging the engine, which includes instructions on running a Flutter app with a local engine.