monkey-w1n5t0n 7691b9ca8c build(vcv): cross-platform CI + Linux dist + /next/vcv publish flow

- add .github/workflows/vcv-plugin.yml: official rack-plugin-toolchain
  (pinned to commit 4fd1318, Rack SDK 2.6.6, image v19) cross-builds the
  MEMLNaut plugin for lin-x64/win-x64/mac-x64/mac-arm64 on CI, uploads
  .vcvplugin artifacts, and attaches them to GitHub Releases on v* tags.
- add vcv/DISTRIBUTION.md: build + publish flow, how to add CI release
  artifacts to meml.lnfinitemonkeys.org/next/vcv.
- add vcv/.gitignore for build products (build/, dist/, *.vcvplugin, binaries).
- BUILDING.md: point at DISTRIBUTION.md; note make dist supersedes Makefile.dist.

Linux x64 .vcvplugin built + verified locally via make dist and published to
/next/vcv (additive subdir). Windows/macOS deferred to CI per prod-host policy.

2026-06-28 04:49:40 +02:00

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Building MEMLNaut VCV Plugin

Distribution & cross-platform builds: for packaging .vcvplugin files, the cross-platform CI matrix, and publishing to /next/vcv, see DISTRIBUTION.md. The official make dist target (from the SDK's plugin.mk) produces dist/<slug>-<version>-<platform>.vcvplugin; the legacy Makefile.dist (zip-based, hard-coded 0.1.0) is superseded by it.

Prerequisites

VCV Rack 2 SDK — download from https://vcvrack.com/manual/PluginDevelopmentTutorial or build from source
C++20 compiler — GCC 10+, Clang 11+, or MSVC 19.29+ (required by nisps-core for std::span and concepts)
GNU Make
zip (for distribution packaging only)

Build Steps

# 1. Set the SDK path (adjust to your installation)
export RACK_DIR=/path/to/Rack-SDK

# 2. Build the plugin
cd vcv
make

# This produces plugin.so (Linux), plugin.dylib (macOS), or plugin.dll (Windows)

The Makefile adds -std=c++20 and includes nisps-core headers from ../nisps-core/include. The VCV SDK's default -std=c++11 flag is filtered out to avoid conflicts.

Local Installation

# Option A: use the SDK's install target
make install
# Copies the plugin to ~/.local/share/Rack2/plugins-lin/ (or platform equivalent)

# Option B: manual symlink (useful during development)
ln -s $(pwd) ~/.local/share/Rack2/plugins-lin/MEMLNaut

After installing, restart VCV Rack (or use the module browser refresh if available). The MEMLNaut module appears in the module browser.

Distribution Packaging

# Build and package in one step
make -f Makefile.dist dist

# Or package an already-built plugin
make -f Makefile.dist package-only

# Output: dist/MEMLNaut-0.1.0-Linux-x86_64.zip (platform name varies)

The zip contains a MEMLNaut/ directory with plugin.so (or .dylib/.dll), plugin.json, and res/. Users extract this into their VCV Rack plugins directory.

Cross-Compilation

Cross-compilation is not currently supported. Building for each platform requires the native VCV Rack SDK and a matching C++20 toolchain.

Options for multi-platform releases:

GitHub Actions CI — build on Linux, macOS, and Windows runners. The VCV SDK provides Docker images for consistent builds.
Docker — VCV provides ghcr.io/vcvrack/rack-plugin-toolchain images for cross-platform builds from a Linux host.
Manual — build natively on each target platform.

The VCV Library submission process handles multi-platform builds automatically via their CI pipeline, but we are not submitting to the Library initially.

Troubleshooting

-std=c++11 conflicts: The Makefile filters this out, but if you see C++20 errors, verify your RACK_DIR points to a v2 SDK and that your compiler supports C++20.
nisps-core not found: The include path assumes nisps-core is at ../nisps-core/include relative to the vcv/ directory. Verify the path or adjust -I in the Makefile.
Plugin not appearing: Check that the built .so/.dylib/.dll is in the correct plugins directory and that plugin.json is alongside it.

3.1 KiB Raw Blame History