Setting up Development Environment

Setup

Install devkitA64. If it's already installed, update it. On Windows, there's a graphical installer. On Unix-like platforms such as Linux/macOS, there's a Perl script. Make sure you also select libnx and the switch examples when installing.

Windows

devkitPro provides 64bit precompiled windows binaries of devkitA64 which can be run directly on Windows.

• If you already use msys2 then you can follow the instructions at https://github.com/devkitPro/pacman/releases/latest to add the devkitPro repositories.

Otherwise

• download the latest version of the graphical installer from github and run it, following the instructions as you go.
• An Internet connection is required.
• You will want to make sure devkitA64 is selected during the installation process to develop for the Switch - you can also install devkitARM (for 3DS, DS and GBA) and devkitPPC (for GameCube/Wii development) if you wish.
• Once the installer has finished, launch MSYS from:
  • Windows 7 and earlier: Start -> All Programs -> devkitPro -> MSYS
  • Windows 8 and 8.1: Right click on the Start screen and select 'All Apps'. You should find MSYS there.
  • Windows 10 (pre-Anniversary Update): Start -> All Apps -> devkitPro -> MSYS
  • Windows 10 (post-Anniversary Update): Start -> devkitPro -> MSYS

Unix-like platforms

Currently devkitPro provides precompiled versions of devkitA64 for the following Unix-like platforms: Linux (x86_64), macOS (x86_64). Note that Linux x86_64 binaries are usable under WSL.

• Follow the instructions to install pacman found at https://github.com/devkitPro/pacman/releases/latest
• run sudo (dkp-)pacman -S switch-dev to install the tools and libraries for switch development
• logout and login again to get the environment settings needed.

Building the examples

Switch examples are still being created; however, there are a growing number of examples available from the switchbrew/switch-examples GitHub repository. These are downloaded by the installer and can be found in $DEVKITPRO/examples/switch

These can be built from the command line.

To start a new homebrew project from the bash shell, simply type the following (replacing ~/projects/myswitchproject with the place you would like your project to be stored, with ~ meaning your HOME directory):

cp -r $DEVKITPRO/examples/switch/templates/application ~/projects/myswitchproject
cd ~/projects/myswitchproject

The standard Makefile will use the folder as the name of the .nro that will be built. You can keep that behaviour or simply change the TARGET := $(notdir $(CURDIR)) line in the Makefile to explicitly name your project.

To compile it, type make in the project directory.