Build system guide

CategoryDeveloper guideStatusReviewed / Source-only partialLast reviewed2026-09-12

Summary

This page documents what MoreBC2 has verified from BitcoinII Core v31.1.0 build-system source and upstream build documentation.

It deliberately does not claim MoreBC2 has successfully built BitcoinII Core from source. September runtime validation used an official v31.1.0 Windows release artifact; release-binary execution and source-build reproduction are separate evidence classes.

Build system

BitcoinII Core uses CMake.

The reviewed top-level CMakeLists.txt:

requires CMake 3.22 or newer;
blocks in-source builds;
declares the project as BitcoinIICore;
requires C++20;
carries the 31.1.0 release version metadata in the current baseline.

Primary source files reviewed

CMakeLists.txt
src/CMakeLists.txt
doc/build-unix.md
cmake/module/FindLibevent.cmake

This is not a complete toolchain/packaging/reproducibility audit.

Major reviewed build options

Option	Reviewed default / behavior	Purpose
`BUILD_DAEMON`	ON	Build daemon
`BUILD_GUI`	OFF	Build Qt GUI
`BUILD_CLI`	ON	Build CLI
`BUILD_TESTS`	ON	Build unit-test executable
`ENABLE_WALLET`	ON	Wallet support
`WITH_SQLITE`	Follows wallet support	SQLite descriptor wallets
`WITH_BDB`	OFF	Berkeley DB legacy-wallet support
`WITH_ZMQ`	OFF	ZMQ notifications
`BUILD_BENCH`	OFF	Benchmarks
`BUILD_FUZZ_BINARY`	OFF	Fuzz binary
`BUILD_FOR_FUZZING`	OFF	Fuzz-oriented build mode
`INSTALL_MAN`	ON	Install man pages

Additional target dependencies/options remain defined by the release-pinned CMake files.

Reviewed target structure

The source defines executable/library targets covering areas such as:

bitcoinIId;
bitcoinII-qt when GUI enabled;
bitcoinII-cli;
transaction/utility/wallet helpers where enabled;
consensus/common/node/CLI libraries;
optional wallet, GUI, kernel, test, benchmark, and fuzz subtrees.

Dependency notes

Reviewed requirements/options include:

CMake 3.22+;
C++20;
threads;
Libevent for normal node/CLI/test-style targets;
Boost headers;
SQLite when descriptor-wallet support is enabled;
Berkeley DB when legacy-wallet support is explicitly enabled;
ZeroMQ when enabled;
Qt for GUI builds;
additional optional QR, USDT, multiprocess, sanitizer, hardening, ccache, and fuzzing dependencies/features.

Exact package names remain platform/distribution-specific.

Source-documented Unix build shape

The upstream source documentation gives a basic shape such as:

cmake -B build
cmake --build build
cmake --install build

and documents package prerequisites plus options such as disabling wallet support.

MoreBC2 has read those commands from source documentation but has not yet executed and recorded a clean v31.1.0 source build. They are source-documented examples, not MoreBC2-tested instructions.

Windows/macOS boundary

CMake includes Windows/MSVC/MinGW and macOS/Darwin-specific handling, but MoreBC2 has not produced a tested current source-build guide for either platform.

The successful Windows node/wallet tests used the published release binary archive, not a locally compiled executable.

Release verification boundary

Current release evidence establishes:

the v31.1.0 lightweight tag target;
GitHub verification of the target commit;
six current binary archives and GitHub-reported digests;
one independently matched MoreBC2 hash for the Windows Qt archive used in runtime testing.

It does not establish:

a maintainer-signed checksum manifest;
detached binary signatures;
a trusted BitcoinII release-signing-key path;
reproducible build equivalence between source and release binaries.

See Release verification.

What remains open

Clean Linux daemon/CLI build from the pinned v31.1.0 source.
No-wallet build.
Unit/functional test execution after a successful build.
Windows/macOS source-build qualification.
depends/, packaging, CI and release-engineering review.
Reproducible-build comparison against published artifacts.

Verification

Status: Reviewed / Source-only partial
Primary evidence: BitcoinII Core v31.1.0 CMake/build documentation plus current release/runtime evidence for boundary comparison
Notes: Build-system structure and documented requirements are source-reviewed. No successful MoreBC2 source build or reproducible-build proof is claimed.