Get source and compile

Even if you don't plan to develop, just the act of downloading and compiling can uncover problems. If the version you download doesn't build on your platform, file a bug.

Getting the source

Download Source Archives (Zipfile/Tarball)

Linden Lab does provide current and past downloads in an archived format, see the source downloads page.

Version Control

Linden Lab also maintains a version control repository. There are some unofficial repositories, too. See the version control repository page for more details.

Compiling

Per platform instructions are available for the following platforms:

• Microsoft Windows - Visual Studio .NET 2003 (recommended, Linden Lab uses VS2003)
  • see also: Compiling the viewer libraries (MSVS 2003)
• Microsoft Windows - Visual Studio 2005 & Visual C++ 2005 Express
• Microsoft Windows - Cross compiling on Linux
• Mac OS X
• Linux
• FreeBSD

See Common compilation problems if you run into errors while building.

See Improving compilation time for information on how to compile faster