I have written a command line utility program on Linux using Lazarus as the IDE. This was done a while ago on an Ubuntu Desktop 20.04 machine, which I normally access using VNC when doing Lazarus work there.

Now since a few months the TigerVNC server on that machinbe won't start anymore so I cannot reach Lazarus.
But I can log on just fine using PuTTY from Windows and do whatever on the command line.

So what I want to do is to modify the source, which I can do via SSH. But then I want to build a new version of the program without access to Lazarus there.

Can this be done and in that case how?
Last build of the application was using fpc ver 3.2.2 and probably Lazarus 2.2.4

I have never compiler a FreePascal program from the command line before....

TIA

If you have a .lpi file (lazarus project file) then you can do simply a

lazbuild yourproject.lpi

lazbuild is a command-line tool that comes with lazarus, it can be used to compile a project file with the same settings as would be used if you were compiling in the IDE.

Michael.

Can this be done and in that case how?

Yes, of course it can be done.
Lazarus IDE just calls the compiler with the correct parameters ;-)

If you happen to have a compiled version of lazbuild on the computer in question it's easy.
Just a lazbuild myproject (not sure if an extension must be given) should do it. AFAIK you can also specify the build-mode (if your project has buildmodes) on the commandline.

If you don't have lazbuild, then you have to figure out what to supply mainly for the unit-paths that are needed (-Fu parameter) to built the project.
Normally the IDE can tell you that, but you cannot access the IDE. So you need the path to all units (where *.o and *.ppu) reside (for e.g. LCL, LazUtils etc.

If you have access to any Lazarus on any PC you can get an idea of how that looks for a similar project.
Goto Colpiler Options -> Show compiler options.
This will show all parameters that the IDE gives to the compiler, including all unitpaths.

I have now entered the bugfix and tried to use lazbuild, but the command is not found...

$ lazbuild videosplitcmb.lpi
lazbuild: command not found

Seems like it is not on path..

My project sources are in ~/projects/VideoSplitCombine

And Lazarus and lazbuild itself is in ~/dev/lazarus/2.2.4/ But not on path...

Should I copy lazbuild to ~/bin where fpc also is located? Or invoke it like this:

~/dev/lazarus/2.2.4/lazbuild videosplitcmb.lpi

TIA

I tried to symlink lazbuild into $HOME/bin and then inside the project dir I tried this:

$ lazbuild videosplitcmb.lpi
Error: (lazarus) invalid Lazarus directory "": directory lcl not found Error: (lazarus) Building failed: videosplitcmb.lpi

I tried lazbuild --help and found out that there is an option one can enter too:

lazbuild --lazarusdir=/home/bosse/dev/lazarus/2.2.4 videosplitcmb.lpi

And this time it worked fine!
I now have the modified tool and I moved it to the Ubuntu Server where it works just fine.

Thanks for the instruction on how to do it.

Use FPC from command line is easy if you're not using the LCL (the Lazarus Component Library).

If you're using the LCL they explained in the other answers, but if you just use the RTL then the easiest way is just calling FPC from the same directory you have the sources:

~$ fpc theprogram

That will compile the program at "theprogram.pas" with default configuration (the fpc.cfg file).

There are a lot of options you can see just with:

~$ fpc -h | more

In most cases I create directories "src/", "obj/" and "bin/" and then I use a bash script like this:

#!/bin/sh
# Debug (GDB).
OPTIONS='-O1 -gw3 -gl -vwn -Ci -Cr -Ct -CR -Co -Sa -gh' # Release.
# OPTIONS='-O3 -CX -XX -Xs -vw'
FLAGS="$OPTIONS -Sh -Si -l"
DIALECT='-MObjFPC'
UNITS='-Fusrc'
OUTPUT='-FUobj -FEbin'
FILE='src/programfile.pas'

FULL="$FLAGS $DIALECT $UNITS $OUTPUT $FILE"
fpc $FULL

I hope this helps.