How to Build ClickHouse on Linux

Supported platforms:

  • x86_64
  • AArch64
  • Power9 (experimental)

Normal Build for Development on Ubuntu

The following tutorial is based on the Ubuntu Linux system. With appropriate changes, it should also work on any other Linux distribution.

Install Git, CMake, Python and Ninja

  1. $ sudo apt-get install git cmake python ninja-build

Or cmake3 instead of cmake on older systems.

Install GCC 9

There are several ways to do this.

Install from Repository

On Ubuntu 19.10 or newer:

  1. $ sudo apt-get update
  2. $ sudo apt-get install gcc-9 g++-9

Install from a PPA Package

On older Ubuntu:

  1. $ sudo apt-get install software-properties-common
  2. $ sudo apt-add-repository ppa:ubuntu-toolchain-r/test
  3. $ sudo apt-get update
  4. $ sudo apt-get install gcc-9 g++-9

Install from Sources

See utils/ci/build-gcc-from-sources.sh

Use GCC 9 for Builds

  1. $ export CC=gcc-9
  2. $ export CXX=g++-9

Checkout ClickHouse Sources

  1. $ git clone --recursive [email protected]:ClickHouse/ClickHouse.git

or

  1. $ git clone --recursive https://github.com/ClickHouse/ClickHouse.git

Build ClickHouse

  1. $ cd ClickHouse
  2. $ mkdir build
  3. $ cd build
  4. $ cmake ..
  5. $ ninja

To create an executable, run ninja clickhouse.
This will create the programs/clickhouse executable, which can be used with client or server arguments.

How to Build ClickHouse on Any Linux

The build requires the following components:

  • Git (is used only to checkout the sources, it’s not needed for the build)
  • CMake 3.10 or newer
  • Ninja (recommended) or Make
  • C++ compiler: gcc 9 or clang 8 or newer
  • Linker: lld or gold (the classic GNU ld won’t work)
  • Python (is only used inside LLVM build and it is optional)

If all the components are installed, you may build in the same way as the steps above.

Example for Ubuntu Eoan:

  1. sudo apt update
  2. sudo apt install git cmake ninja-build g++ python
  3. git clone --recursive https://github.com/ClickHouse/ClickHouse.git
  4. mkdir build && cd build
  5. cmake ../ClickHouse
  6. ninja

Example for OpenSUSE Tumbleweed:

  1. sudo zypper install git cmake ninja gcc-c++ python lld
  2. git clone --recursive https://github.com/ClickHouse/ClickHouse.git
  3. mkdir build && cd build
  4. cmake ../ClickHouse
  5. ninja

Example for Fedora Rawhide:

  1. sudo yum update
  2. yum --nogpg install git cmake make gcc-c++ python3
  3. git clone --recursive https://github.com/ClickHouse/ClickHouse.git
  4. mkdir build && cd build
  5. cmake ../ClickHouse
  6. make -j $(nproc)

How to Build ClickHouse Debian Package

Install Git and Pbuilder

  1. $ sudo apt-get update
  2. $ sudo apt-get install git python pbuilder debhelper lsb-release fakeroot sudo debian-archive-keyring debian-keyring

Checkout ClickHouse Sources

  1. $ git clone --recursive --branch master https://github.com/ClickHouse/ClickHouse.git
  2. $ cd ClickHouse

Run Release Script

  1. $ ./release

Faster builds for development

Normally all tools of the ClickHouse bundle, such as clickhouse-server, clickhouse-client etc., are linked into a single static executable, clickhouse. This executable must be re-linked on every change, which might be slow. Two common ways to improve linking time are to use lld linker, and use the ‘split’ build configuration, which builds a separate binary for every tool, and further splits the code into serveral shared libraries. To enable these tweaks, pass the following flags to cmake:

  1. -DCMAKE_C_FLAGS="-fuse-ld=lld" -DCMAKE_CXX_FLAGS="-fuse-ld=lld" -DUSE_STATIC_LIBRARIES=0 -DSPLIT_SHARED_LIBRARIES=1 -DCLICKHOUSE_SPLIT_BINARY=1

You Don’t Have to Build ClickHouse

ClickHouse is available in pre-built binaries and packages. Binaries are portable and can be run on any Linux flavour.

They are built for stable, prestable and testing releases as long as for every commit to master and for every pull request.

To find the freshest build from master, go to commits page, click on the first green checkmark or red cross near commit, and click to the “Details” link right after “ClickHouse Build Check”.

Split build configuration

Normally ClickHouse is statically linked into a single static clickhouse binary with minimal dependencies. This is convenient for distribution, but it means that on every change the entire binary is linked again, which is slow and may be inconvenient for development. There is an alternative configuration which creates dynamically loaded shared libraries instead, allowing faster incremental builds. To use it, add the following flags to your cmake invocation:

  1. -DUSE_STATIC_LIBRARIES=0 -DSPLIT_SHARED_LIBRARIES=1 -DCLICKHOUSE_SPLIT_BINARY=1

Note that in this configuration there is no single clickhouse binary, and you have to run clickhouse-server, clickhouse-client etc.

Original article