Title: Building ODE
Category: contributing

# Overview
Building from the source is usually for the thick skinned, we try to keep our trunk stable but it's a development environment so we can never guarantee that everything will be smooth. If you rather work with something more stable or if you don't need the latest and greatest, using the [latest official distribution](/getting-ode.html) is probably a better option.

<a name="BuildingODE-Gettingthesourcecode"></a>
## Getting the source code

<a name="BuildingODE-withGit"></a>
### with Git

The Subversion repository is mirrored by a Git repository at [http://git.apache.org/ode.git](http://git.apache.org/ode.git) or [Github](http://github.com/apache/ode).
So if you're more comfortable with Git, you can clone this repo.

    :::text
    $> git clone http://git.apache.org/ode.git
    $> cd ode
    $> git checkout -b 1.X --track origin/trunk

<a name="BuildingODE-BuildingWithBuildr"></a>
## Building With Buildr

ODE uses [Apache Buildr](http://buildr.apache.org). Buildr has a very detailed [installation guide](http://buildr.apache.org/installing.html), so refer to it to get Buildr working on your machine.
The latest known working configuration for trunk (both for windows, linux, macos with JDK 1.5 and JDK 1.6) is buildr 1.4.4, jruby 1.5.1 (ruby 1.8.7 patchlevel 174).

Building is then pretty simple. 

<div class="alert alert-info"><h4 class="alert-heading">Version Information</h4>
    The trunk must be build with Buildr <b>1.4.4</b> or higher
</div>

Open a command in the source root directory and run:

    :::text
    $> buildr package test=no


To try the test cases bundled with ODE:

    :::text
    $> buildr test


You are very welcome to contribute by running test cases and posting spotted errors into [mailing list](http://ode.apache.org/mailing-lists.html). 

To generate Eclipse project files:

    :::text
    $> buildr eclipse


<div class="alert alert-info">
    You may use "buildr _1.4.4_ test" - like syntax to use specific buildr version.
</div>

It just works! For more information about Buildr see http://buildr.apache.org/.

<a name="BuildingODE-Troubleshooting"></a>
## Troubleshooting

* If you get a Zlib:BufError, that's because of your version of Rubygems, just upgrade RubyGems by typing:
    ```gem update --system```