Building NIXL from Source | NIXL Documentation

Build NIXL from source using one of the following methods:

Docker — Build and run NIXL in a container
NIXL C++ (Meson) — Build the core C++ library
Python Bindings — Build and install the Python package from source
Rust Bindings — Build the Rust bindings

Build Options

Common Build Options

Option	Default	Description
`build_docs`	`false`	Build Doxygen documentation
`build_nixl_ep`	`false`	Build NIXL-EP, Expert-parallel communication
`ucx_path`	`""`	Path to UCX installation
`libfabric_path`	`""`	Path to Libfabric installation
`gds_path`	`/usr/local/cuda/`	Path to GDS CuFile installation
`install_headers`	`true`	Install development headers
`disable_gds_backend`	`false`	Disable GDS backend
`disable_mooncake_backend`	`false`	Disable Mooncake backend
`cudapath_inc`	auto-detected	Custom CUDA include path
`cudapath_lib`	auto-detected	Custom CUDA library path
`cudapath_stub`	`""`	Custom CUDA stub library path
`etcd_inc_path`	`""`	Path to etcd headers
`etcd_lib_path`	`""`	Path to etcd libraries
`static_plugins`	`""`	Comma-separated plug-ins to build statically
`enable_plugins`	all	Comma-separated plug-ins to build (cannot combine with `disable_plugins`)
`disable_plugins`	`""`	Comma-separated plug-ins to exclude (cannot combine with `enable_plugins`)
`rust`	`false`	Build Rust bindings
`log_level`	`auto`	Log level: trace, debug, info, warning, error, fatal, auto

Example with custom options:

meson setup build \
    -Ducx_path=/opt/ucx \
    -Denable_plugins=UCX,POSIX \
    -Drust=true

Backend Specific Instructions

Some backends have additional build requirements beyond the core prerequisites. Refer to the plug-in-specific documentation under NIXL Backends for details.