Repository Setup

Use this script below to build PulseAudio to run directly from the git source tree without installation:

#
# build.sh
#
# Steps for configuring and compiling PulseAudio to run
# directly from the git source tree. This is useful for
# day-to-day PA developers not to mess with the
# distribution-installed PulseAudio instance and configs.
#
# Detailed steps taken from Colin Guthrie's blog article:
#
#    Compiling and running PulseAudio from git
#    http://colin.guthr.ie/2010/09/compiling-and-running-pulseaudio-from-git/
#

LOG_DIR=build/logs

build() {
    NOCONFIGURE=true ./bootstrap.sh -V

    cd build
    ../configure --prefix=$(pwd)

    #
    # "Due to an intltool upstream bug, the translations for
    # .desktop files are not written if the destination folder
    # does not exist" --coling
    #
    mkdir -p src/daemon
    make -j 30

    # Mixer profile definitions
    mkdir -p share/pulseaudio
    ln -s ../../../src/modules/alsa/mixer share/pulseaudio/alsa-mixer

    ln -s pacat src/paplay
    ln -s pacat src/parec
}

rm -fr build
mkdir -p build
mkdir -p $LOG_DIR
build 2>&1 | tee $LOG_DIR/BUILD_LOG.txt

And this one to actually run it:

#
# Steps for running PulseAudio from within the git source tree
#
# Read and run the contents of `build.sh' script first!
#

LOG_DIR=build/logs
HOME_CONFIG_CLIENT_CONF=$HOME/.pulse/client.conf
AUTOSPAWN_NO=' *autospawn *= *no *'

#
# Even while PA modules actually exist under `build/src/.libs'
# instead of just `build/src', specificy the latter as the DL
# search path.
#
# Per the libtool documentation, libtool already adds the
# .libs/ suffix for us if we're running pulseAudio from within
# the source repository.
#
# It does this by applying some Unix trickery and by making
# `build/src/pulseaudio' actually a shell script wrapper
# around the real PA existing at `build/src/.libs/pulseaudio'!
#
PA=build/src/pulseaudio
PA_FLAGS="-n -F build/src/default.pa -p $(pwd)/build/src/.libs/ -vvvv"

run() {
    #
    # pulse-client.conf(5)
    # autospawn= Autospawn a PulseAudio daemon when needed.
    #
    touch $HOME_CONFIG_CLIENT_CONF
    grep "$AUTOSPAWN_NO" $HOME_CONFIG_CLIENT_CONF
    if [ "$?" != "0" ]; then
        echo "autospawn=no" >> $HOME_CONFIG_CLIENT_CONF
    fi

    # Assuming only user instances
    PULSE_PID=$(ps ux | grep pulseaudio | grep -v grep | awk '{ print $2 }')
    if [ x"$PULSE_PID" != x ]; then
        kill $PULSE_PID
    fi

    $PA $PA_FLAGS
}

#
# Did we forget to execute `build.sh'?
#
if [ ! -x $PA ]; then
    echo "In-place PA configuration and build not done"
    echo "Please run \`build.sh' first!"
    echo "Exiting ..."
    exit -1
fi

run 2>&1 | tee $LOG_DIR/RUN_LOG.txt