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Metaphor: Base Installation (Host-only)

This guide covers the minimum dependencies needed to build and run Metaphor on CPU. Complete this before setting up a GPU backend.

Prerequisites

Dependency Minimum Version Purpose
C3 compiler (c3c) latest Compiles all Metaphor source code
CMake 3.21+ Build system, generates project.json for c3c
C compiler (gcc/clang) gcc 11+ / clang 14+ Needed for C sources (cJSON) and linking
BLAS library — Required for host tensor operations (GEMM, etc.)

Install the C3 Compiler

Download the latest release from c3-lang.org or build from source:

# Option 1: download a release binary
# See https://github.com/c3lang/c3c/releases

# Option 2: build from source
git clone https://github.com/c3lang/c3c.git
cd c3c
cmake -B build -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=Release
cmake --build build -j$(nproc)
sudo cmake --install build

Verify it works:

c3c --version

Install a BLAS Library

You need one of the following. The build system auto-detects which is available (MKL is preferred if both are present).

Option A: Intel MKL (recommended for Intel/AMD CPUs)

# Ubuntu/Debian
sudo apt install intel-mkl

# Or via Intel's repository (for latest version):
# See https://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/developer/tools/oneapi/onemkl.html

Set the environment variable if installed to a non-standard location:

export MKLROOT=/opt/intel/oneapi/mkl/latest

Option B: OpenBLAS

# Ubuntu/Debian
sudo apt install libopenblas-dev

# Fedora/RHEL
sudo dnf install openblas-devel

# Arch
sudo pacman -S openblas

Option C: Apple Accelerate (macOS only)

Accelerate is included with macOS. The build system detects it automatically.

Install CMake

# Ubuntu/Debian
sudo apt install cmake

# Fedora/RHEL
sudo dnf install cmake

# Arch
sudo pacman -S cmake

# macOS
brew install cmake

Build

cd metaphor/

# Configure (auto-detects BLAS, no GPU)
cmake -B build -DGPU_BACKEND=none

# Generate project.json and build
cmake --build build -j$(nproc)

Manually selecting a BLAS backend

If auto-detection picks the wrong library, override it:

cmake -B build -DGPU_BACKEND=none -DHOST_BLAS=openblas
# or
cmake -B build -DGPU_BACKEND=none -DHOST_BLAS=mkl

Verify

A successful build produces build/metaphor.a.

Next Steps