Building from Source

Table of Contents

Prerequisites

All C++ dependencies are fetched automatically via CMake FetchContent.

Linux Build

git clone https://github.com/lemonade-sdk/lemonade-nexus.git
cd lemonade-nexus
cmake -B build -G Ninja -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=Release
cmake --build build -j$(nproc)

The server binary is at build/projects/LemonadeNexus/lemonade-nexus.

Install

sudo cp build/projects/LemonadeNexus/lemonade-nexus /usr/local/bin/
sudo mkdir -p /var/lib/lemonade-nexus

systemd Service

[Unit]
Description=Lemonade-Nexus Mesh VPN Server
After=network-online.target
Wants=network-online.target

[Service]
Type=simple
WorkingDirectory=/var/lib/lemonade-nexus
ExecStart=/usr/local/bin/lemonade-nexus --dns-port 5353
Restart=always
RestartSec=5

[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target

macOS Build

cmake -B build -G Ninja -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=Release
cmake --build build -j$(sysctl -n hw.ncpu)

Windows Build

cmake -B build -G Ninja -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=Release
cmake --build build

Requires Visual Studio 2022 Build Tools with C++ workload.

macOS Client App

# Build the C++ SDK first
cmake --build build --target LemonadeNexusSDK

# Build the Swift app
cd apps/LemonadeNexusMac
swift build

# Codesign
codesign --force --sign - .build/debug/LemonadeNexusMac
codesign --force --sign - .build/debug/LemonadeNexusTunnelHelper

# Install to /Applications
APP="/Applications/Lemonade Nexus.app"
mkdir -p "$APP/Contents/MacOS" "$APP/Contents/Resources"
cp .build/debug/LemonadeNexusMac "$APP/Contents/MacOS/"
cp .build/debug/LemonadeNexusTunnelHelper "$APP/Contents/MacOS/"
codesign --force --sign - "$APP"

Running Tests

cd build
ctest --output-on-failure -j$(nproc)

Expected: 309 tests pass (4 ACME staging tests disabled).

Dependencies (auto-fetched)

Library Version Purpose
libsodium 1.0.20 Ed25519, X25519, AEAD, HKDF
OpenSSL 3.3.2 TLS, ACME client
asio 1.34.2 Async I/O (UDP, timers)
cpp-httplib 0.18.3 HTTP/HTTPS server+client
nlohmann/json 3.12.0 JSON parsing
spdlog 1.16.0 Structured logging
jwt-cpp 0.7.0 JWT tokens
magic_enum 0.9.7 Enum reflection
xxHash 0.8.3 Fast hashing
BoringTun (Rust crate) Userspace WireGuard