Compiling from source code

For other platforms, WhiteboxTools can be compiled from the source code with the following steps:

1. Install the Rust compiler; Rustup is recommended for this purpose. Further instruction can be found at this link.
2. Download the WhiteboxTools source code. To download the code, click the green Clone or download button on the GitHub repository site.
3. Decompress the zipped download file.
4. Open a terminal (command prompt) window and change the working directory to the whitebox_tools sub-folder, which is contained within the decompressed downloaded Whitebox GAT folder:


>> cd /path/to/folder/whitebox_tools/


5. Finally, use the rust package manager Cargo, which will be installed along with Rust, to compile the executable:


>> cargo build --release

Depending on your system, the compilation may take several minutes. When completed, the compiled binary executable file will be contained within the whitebox_tools/target/release/ folder. Type ./whitebox_tools --help at the command prompt (after cd'ing to the containing folder) for information on how to run the executable from the terminal.

Later, you may wish to move the executable file to its own folder along with the whitebox_tools.py and wb_runner.py Python scripts, although you do not need these scripts to use WhiteboxTools. Note, running these scripts requires Python 3 to be installed.

Dr. John Lindsay
Rm. 346 Hutt Building
Department Geography, Environment & Geomatics
University of Guelph
50 Stone Rd. East
Guelph, ON, Canada, N1G 2W1

Email: jlindsay@uoguelph.ca
Phone: 519-824-4120 ext. 56074
Find me: LinkedIn, ResearchGate.

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