.. _doc_getting_source: Getting the source ================== .. highlight:: shell Downloading the Godot source code --------------------------------- Before :ref:`getting into the SCons build system ` and compiling Godot, you need to actually download the Godot source code. The source code is available on `GitHub `__ and while you can manually download it via the website, in general you want to do it via the ``git`` version control system. If you are compiling in order to make contributions or pull requests, you should follow the instructions from the :ref:`Pull Request workflow `. If you don't know much about ``git`` yet, there are a great number of `tutorials `__ available on various websites. In general, you need to install ``git`` and/or one of the various GUI clients. Afterwards, to get the latest development version of the Godot source code (the unstable ``master`` branch), you can use ``git clone``. If you are using the ``git`` command line client, this is done by entering the following in a terminal: :: git clone https://github.com/godotengine/godot.git # You can add the --depth 1 argument to omit the commit history. # Faster, but not all Git operations (like blame) will work. For any stable release, visit the `release page `__ and click on the link for the release you want. You can then download and extract the source from the download link on the page. With ``git``, you can also clone a stable release by specifying its branch or tag after the ``--branch`` (or just ``-b``) argument:: # Clone the continuously maintained stable branch (`3.x` as of writing). git clone https://github.com/godotengine/godot.git -b 3.x # Clone the `3.2.3-stable` tag. This is a fixed revision that will never change. git clone https://github.com/godotengine/godot.git -b 3.2.3-stable There are also generally branches besides ``master`` for each major version. After downloading the Godot source code, you can :ref:`continue to compiling Godot `.