Building from Source

If you'd like to build Zvec from source, you can clone the repository and install it locally.

Install from Source

# Clone the repository
git clone --recurse-submodules https://github.com/alibaba/zvec.git
cd zvec

# Install from source
pip install .

Build Requirements

• Python 3.9 or higher

• Supported platforms: Linux (x86_64) or macOS (ARM64/x86_64)

• C++17 compatible compiler

• scikit-build (installed automatically as a build dependency, but may require manual configuration in some environments)

  Troubleshooting Tips:

  • If you encounter issues during the build process, try setting a custom build directory for scikit-build.
    This can help avoid cache inconsistencies and makes it easier to inspect detailed build logs:

    export SKBUILD_BUILD_DIR=/tmp/build  # Or other directory
    pip install .

    After the build attempt, you can examine the contents of /tmp/build (or your chosen directory) to review compiler output and diagnose errors.

  • By default, scikit-build uses Ninja as the build system. To use Unix Makefiles instead, set:

    export CMAKE_GENERATOR="Unix Makefiles"
    pip install .