ZeroTierOne/build.md

ZeroTier Build and Project Information

Build and Platform Notes

Basic Build Instructions

To build on Mac and Linux just type make. On FreeBSD and OpenBSD gmake (GNU make) is required and can be installed from packages or ports. For Windows there is a Visual Studio solution in windows/.

Platform Requirements

Mac

• Xcode command line tools for macOS 10.13 or newer are required.
• Rust for x86_64 and ARM64 targets if SSO is enabled in the build.

Linux

• The minimum compiler versions required are GCC/G++ 8.x or CLANG/CLANG++ 5.x.
• Linux makefiles automatically detect and prefer clang/clang++ if present as it produces smaller and slightly faster binaries in most cases. You can override by supplying CC and CXX variables on the make command line.
• Rust for x86_64 and ARM64 targets if SSO is enabled in the build.

Windows

• Visual Studio 2022 on Windows 10 or newer.
• Rust for x86_64 and ARM64 targets if SSO is enabled in the build.

FreeBSD

• GNU make is required. Type gmake to build.
• binutils is required. Type pkg install binutils to install.
• Rust for x86_64 and ARM64 targets if SSO is enabled in the build.

OpenBSD

• There is a limit of four network memberships on OpenBSD as there are only four tap devices (/dev/tap0 through /dev/tap3).
• GNU make is required. Type gmake to build.
• Rust for x86_64 and ARM64 targets if SSO is enabled in the build.

Testing

Typing make selftest will build a zerotier-selftest binary which unit tests various internals and reports on a few aspects of the build environment. It's a good idea to try this on novel platforms or architectures.

Running ZeroTier

Running zerotier-one with -h option will show help.

On Linux and BSD, if you built from source, you can start the service with:

sudo ./zerotier-one -d

On most distributions, macOS, and Windows, the installer will start the service and set it up to start on boot.

A home folder for your system will automatically be created.

The service is controlled via the JSON API, which by default is available at 127.0.0.1:9993. It also listens on 0.0.0.0:9993 which is only usable if allowManagementFrom is properly configured in local.conf. We include a zerotier-cli command line utility to make API calls for standard things like joining and leaving networks. The authtoken.secret file in the home folder contains the secret token for accessing this API. See service/README.md for API documentation.

Directory Structure

Home Folder Locations

ZeroTier stores its configuration and state files in platform-specific locations:

• Linux: /var/lib/zerotier-one
• FreeBSD / OpenBSD: /var/db/zerotier-one
• Mac: /Library/Application Support/ZeroTier/One
• Windows: \ProgramData\ZeroTier\One (That's the default. The base 'shared app data' folder might be different if Windows is installed with a non-standard drive letter assignment or layout.)

Project Structure

The repository is organized as follows:

• node/ - Core ZeroTier networking code
• osdep/ - Operating system dependent code
  
• service/ - Service implementation and API
• controller/ - Network controller implementation
• ext/ - External code included for build convenience (retains original licenses)
• nonfree/ - Source available (non-free) portions
• windows/ - Windows-specific Visual Studio solution files

Build System

The project supports various build targets and platforms:

• Standard build: make
• Self-test build: make selftest
• Platform-specific requirements:
  • FreeBSD/OpenBSD: Use gmake (GNU make)
  • Windows: Visual Studio solution in windows/

License Structure

• node/, osdep/, service/: Licensed under MPL-2.0 (see LICENSE-MPL.txt)
• nonfree/: Non-free "source available" code (see nonfree/LICENSE.md)
• ext/: External code with original licenses retained