This page contains information about how to download and install PCB on your computer.

Prerequisites

Operating System

Currently PCB runs on unix like operating systems such as Linux, NetBSD, Solaris, FreeBSD, Mac OS X, etc. In addition PCB will work on a windows computer using cygwin. It is also possible to compile PCB using mingw on windows using the win32/build_pcb.sh script.

External Libraries

• GUI toolkit. Currently PCB supports either gtk or lesstif/motif based guis. If you are using the GTK based gui, you will need gtk-2.4.0 or newer. If you are using the lesstif based gui you will need lesstif, openmotif, or motif.
• If you wish to export your layout to png, jpeg, or gif formats you will need the GD library. If you do not have this library you will need to disable the png HID at configure time.
• GNU m4. In particular your m4 must support -F for frozen files.
• wish (part of tcl/tk). If not installed, set WISH=/bin/false in your configure environment and you just won't get the graphical QFP footprint builder
• A suitable make program. GNU make will work as will the make which comes with NetBSD and some of the other *BSD operating systems. Other system make programs have not been tested.
• flex
• bison
• A C compiler. Although most development of PCB is done using gcc, PCB is known to build with the Sun Studio C compiler.

Download the Sources -- Snapshot Releases

PCB is distributed in source code format. Periodic snapshot releases are made which help the average user build and install the software. The latest snapshots may be found on the PCB file release page.

Tracking the Latest

PCB uses git for source code management. For more information on the git repository used by PCB see the gEDA scm wiki page

To perform an initial check out of PCB sources via anonymous GIT, run the following:

git clone git://git.geda-project.org/pcb.git

In addition (for those who don't have git), you may obtain the latest sources via anonymous CVS. To perform an initial check out of PCB sources via anonymous CVS, run the following:

cvs -d :pserver:anonymous@git.geda-project.org/home/git/pcb.git co master

If you have a checked out source tree from the sourceforge anonymous CVS repository, then you will need to replace the contents of all the CVS/Root files with :pserver:anonymous@git.geda-project.org/home/git/pcb.git. A shell script can automate that procedure.

Users intending to do development work on PCB, and/or submit patches should ideally check out from the git repository.

Those who wish to build from CVS or git sources instead of one of the snapshots should read the README.git in the top of the source tree for instructions. Note that for most users, the snapshot releases should be sufficient.