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Building Zed for Linux

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Clone the Repository

Clone the Zed repository: 
git clone https://github.com/zed-industries/zed.git
cd zed

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Install Dependencies

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Rust

Install rustup: 
curl --proto '=https' --tlsv1.2 -sSf https://sh.rustup.rs | sh

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System Libraries

Install the necessary system libraries: 
script/linux
If you prefer to install the system libraries manually, you can find the list of required packages in the script/linux file.

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Linkers

On Linux, Rust’s default linker is LLVM’s lld. Alternative linkers, especially Wild and Mold, can improve clean and incremental build times. Zed currently uses Mold in CI because it is more mature. For local development, Wild is recommended because it is typically 5-20% faster than Mold. These linkers can be installed with: 
script/install-mold
script/install-wild

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Using Wild as Your Default Linker

To use Wild as your default, add these lines to your ~/.cargo/config.toml: 
[target.x86_64-unknown-linux-gnu]
linker = "clang"
rustflags = ["-C", "link-arg=--ld-path=wild"]

[target.aarch64-unknown-linux-gnu]
linker = "clang"
rustflags = ["-C", "link-arg=--ld-path=wild"]

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Using Mold as Your Default Linker

To use Mold as your default: 
[target.'cfg(target_os = "linux")']
rustflags = ["-C", "link-arg=-fuse-ld=mold"]

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Build Zed from Source

Once the dependencies are installed, you can build Zed using Cargo.

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Debug Build

For a debug build of the editor: 
cargo run

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CLI in Release Mode

In release mode, the primary user interface is the cli crate. You can run it in development with: 
cargo run -p cli

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Run Tests

To run the tests: 
cargo test --workspace

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Install a Development Build

You can install a local build on your machine with: 
./script/install-linux
This builds zed and the cli in release mode, installs the binary at ~/.local/bin/zed, and installs .desktop files to ~/.local/share.

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Linker Errors with aws-lc-rs

If you encounter linker errors similar to: 
error: linking with `cc` failed: exit status: 1 ...
= note: /usr/bin/ld: /tmp/rustcISMaod/libaws_lc_sys-79f08eb6d32e546e.rlib(f8e4fd781484bd36-bcm.o): in function `aws_lc_0_25_0_handle_cpu_env':
          /aws-lc/crypto/fipsmodule/cpucap/cpu_intel.c:(.text.aws_lc_0_25_0_handle_cpu_env+0x63): undefined reference to `__isoc23_sscanf'
          ...
Cause: This is caused by known bugs in aws-lc-rs (no GCC >= 14 support): FIPS fails to build with GCC >= 14 & GCC-14 - build failure for FIPS module Workaround: Set the remote server target to x86_64-unknown-linux-gnu: 
export REMOTE_SERVER_TARGET=x86_64-unknown-linux-gnu
script/install-linux
You can refer to linux: Linker error for remote_server when using script/install-linux for more information.

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Wayland & X11

Zed supports both X11 and Wayland. By default, we pick whichever we can find at runtime. If you’re on Wayland and want to run in X11 mode, use the environment variable: 
WAYLAND_DISPLAY='' cargo run

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Memory Profiling

heaptrack is quite useful for diagnosing memory leaks. To install it: 
sudo apt install heaptrack heaptrack-gui
cargo install cargo-heaptrack
Then, to build and run Zed with the profiler attached: 
cargo heaptrack -b zed
When this zed instance is exited, terminal output will include a command to run heaptrack_interpret to convert the *.raw.zst profile to a *.zst file which can be passed to heaptrack_gui for viewing.

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Perf Recording

How to get a flamegraph with resolved symbols from a running Zed instance. Use this when Zed is using a lot of CPU. It is not useful for hangs.

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During the Incident

  1. Find the PID (process ID): 
    ps -eo size,pid,comm | grep zed | sort | head -n 1 | cut -d ' ' -f 2
    Or find the PID of zed-editor with the highest RAM usage in htop/btop/top.
  2. Install perf (on Ubuntu derivatives): 
    sudo apt install linux-tools
  3. Perf record: 
    sudo perf record -p <pid you just found>
    Wait a few seconds to gather data, then press Ctrl+C. You should now have a perf.data file.
  4. Make the output file user owned: 
    sudo chown $USER:$USER perf.data
  5. Get build info: Run zed again and type zed: about in the command palette to get the exact commit.
The perf.data file can be sent to Zed together with the exact commit.

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Later (by Zed Staff)

  1. Build Zed with symbols: Check out the commit found previously and modify Cargo.toml. Apply the following diff, then make a release build: 
    [profile.release]
-debug = "limited"
+debug = "full"
  2. Add the symbols to the perf database: 
    perf buildid-cache -v -a <path to release zed binary>
  3. Resolve the symbols from the db: 
    perf inject -i perf.data -o perf_with_symbols.data
  4. Install flamegraph: 
    cargo install cargo-flamegraph
  5. Render the flamegraph: 
    flamegraph --perfdata perf_with_symbols.data

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Troubleshooting

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Cargo errors claiming that a dependency is using unstable features

Try: 
cargo clean
cargo build

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Packaging Zed

For information about packaging Zed for distribution, see the notes for packaging Zed in the official documentation.