Build Dependencies

Complete overview of Bitcoin Core build dependencies and requirements

Bitcoin Core has several required and optional dependencies that you’ll need to install before building. You can either install these dependencies using your system’s package manager or self-compile them using the depends system in the source repository.

Compiler Requirements

Bitcoin Core requires one of the following compilers:

Compiler	Minimum Version
Clang	17.0
GCC	12.1

Required Dependencies

Build Dependencies

These dependencies are required for all builds:

Dependency	Minimum Version	Purpose
Boost	1.74.0	C++ libraries
CMake	3.22	Build system
libevent	2.1.8	Event notification

Runtime Dependencies

Dependency	Minimum Version	Purpose
glibc	2.31	GNU C Library (Linux)

Optional Dependencies

Build Dependencies

Dependency	Minimum Version	Purpose
Cap’n Proto	0.7.1	IPC functionality
Python	3.10	Scripts and tests
Qt	6.2	GUI
qrencode	N/A	QR code generation (GUI)
SQLite	3.7.17	Wallet functionality
systemtap	N/A	USDT tracing
ZeroMQ	4.0.0	Notifications

Runtime Dependencies

Dependency	Minimum Version	Purpose
Fontconfig	2.6	Font configuration (GUI)
FreeType	2.3.0	Font rendering (GUI)

Dependency Installation

Linux/Unix

Install dependencies on Ubuntu, Debian, Fedora, Alpine, and other Linux distributions

macOS

Install dependencies using Homebrew on macOS

Windows

Cross-compile on Linux/WSL using MinGW-w64

BSD

Install dependencies on FreeBSD, OpenBSD, and NetBSD

Using the Depends System

If you prefer to self-compile dependencies instead of using system packages, Bitcoin Core includes a depends system that can build all required dependencies from source. See the README.md in the depends/ directory of the source code for more information.