Building sqlite-vss from source ​

If there isn't a prebuilt sqlite-vss build for your operating system or CPU architecture, you can try building sqlite-vss yourself. It'll require a C++ compiler, cmake, and possibly a few other libraries to build correctly.

Below are the general steps to build sqlite-vss. Your operating system may require a few more libraries or setup instructions, so some tips are listed below under Platform-specific compiling tips.

Instructions ​

To start, clone this repository and its submodules.

git clone --recurse-submodules https://github.com/asg017/sqlite-vss.git
cd sqlite-vss

Next, you'll need to build a vendored version of SQLite under vendor/sqlite. To retrieve the SQLite amalgammation, run the ./vendor/get_sqlite.sh script:

./vendor/get_sqlite.sh

Then navigate to the newly built vendor/sqlite directory and build the SQLite library.

cd vendor/sqlite
./configure && make

Now that all dependencies are downloaded and configured, you can build the sqlite-vss extension! Run either make loadable to build a loadable SQLite extension.

# Build a debug version of `sqlite-vss`.
# Faster to compile, slower at runtime
make loadable

After it finishes, you'll find debug version of vector0 and vss0 inside dist/debug, with file extensions .dylib, .so, or .dll, depending on your operating system.

To compile static library files of sqlite-vss and sqlite-vector, run make static.

# Build a debug static archive files of `sqlite-vss`, ".a" and ".h" files
make static

After it completes, you'll find .a and .h files inside dist/debug, which can be used to statically link sqlite-vss into other projects. The Rust bindings and Go bindings uses this approach.

-I./dist/debug -lsqlite_vector0 -lsqlite_vss0 -llfaiss_avx2

For better runtime performance and smaller binaries, consider instead make loadable-release and make static-release.

# Build a release version of `sqlite-vss`.
# Slower to compile, but faster at runtime
make loadable-release

make static-release

You'll file the optimized loadable and static files under dist/release.

Platform-specific compiling tips ​

MacOS (x86_64) ​

On Macs, you may need to install and use llvm and libomp for compilation. It can be install with brew:

brew install llvm libomp

Additionally, if you see other cryptic compiling errors, you may need to explicitly state to use the llvm compilers, with flags like so:

export CC=/usr/local/opt/llvm/bin/clang
export CXX=/usr/local/opt/llvm/bin/clang++
export LDFLAGS="-L/usr/local/opt/llvm/lib"
export CPPFLAGS="-I/usr/local/opt/llvm/include"

If you come across any problems, please file an issue!

MacOS (M1/M2 ARM) ​

For Mac M1/M2 computers, you'll need llvm and libomp:

brew install llvm libomp

You will also likely need the following compiler flags:

export CC="/opt/homebrew/opt/llvm/bin/clang"
export CXX="/opt/homebrew/opt/llvm/bin/clang++"
export LDFLAGS="-L/opt/homebrew/opt/libomp/lib"
export CPPFLAGS="-I/opt/homebrew/opt/libomp/include"

Note that these are slightly different than the ones above, as LDFLAGS/CPPFLAGS are referencing libomp instead.

Linux (x86_64) ​

You most likely will need to install the following libraries before compiling:

sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install libgomp1 libatlas-base-dev liblapack-dev libsqlite3-dev

Explainations for these packages:

• libgomp1: OpenMP implementation, for multi-threading. Required by Faiss
• libatlas-base-dev: Provides a BLAS implementation. Required by Faiss
• liblapack-dev: Provides an LAPACK implementation. Required by Faiss
• libsqlite3-dev: Provides SQLite headers/static files for dev purposes.