Setting up Development Environment

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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.

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.