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Proton is a tool for use with the Steam client which allows games which areexclusive to Windows to run on the Linux operating system. It uses Wine tofacilitate this.

Most users should use Proton provided by the Steam Client itself. Seethis Steam Community post for more details.

The source code is provided to enable advanced users the ability to alterProton. For example, some users may wish to use a different version of Winewith a particular title.

The changelog is available onour wiki.

Acquire Proton's source by cloninghttps://github.com/ValveSoftware/Protonand checking out the branch you desire.

You can clone the latest Proton to your system with this command:

git clone --recurse-submodules https://github.com/ValveSoftware/Proton.git proton

Be sure to update submodules when switching between branches:

git checkout experimental_6.3git submodule update --init --recursive

If you want to change any subcomponent, now is the time to do so. Forexample, if you wish to make changes to Wine, you would apply them to thewine/ directory.

Most of Proton builds inside the Proton SDK container with very fewdependencies on the host side.

You need either a Docker or a Podman setup. We highly recommendthe rootlessPodman setup. Please refer to your distribution'sdocumentation for setup instructions (e.g. ArchPodman /Docker, DebianPodman /Docker).

We provide a top-level Makefile which will execute most of the build commandsfor you.

After checking out the repository and updating its submodules, assuming thatyou have a working Docker or Podman setup, you can build and install Protonwith a simple:

make install

If your build system is missing dependencies, it will fail quickly with a clearerror message.

After the build finishes, you may need to restart the Steam client to see thenew Proton tool. The tool's name in the Steam client will be based on thecurrently checked out branch of Proton. You can override this name using thebuild_name variable.

Seemake help for other build targets and options.

mkdir ../build&&cd ../build../proton/configure.sh --enable-ccache --build-name=my_build

Runningconfigure.sh will create aMakefile allowing you to build Proton.The scripts checks if containers are functional and prompt you if anyhost-side dependencies are missing. You should run the command from adirectory created specifically for your build.

The configuration script tries to discover a working Docker or Podman setupto use, but you can force a compatible engine with--container-engine=<executable_name>.

You can enable ccache with--enable-cache flag. This will mount your$CCACHE_DIR or$HOME/.ccache inside the container.

--proton-sdk-image=registry.gitlab.steamos.cloud/proton/soldier/sdk:<version>can be used to build with a custom version of the Proton SDK images.

Check--help for other configuration options.

NOTE: IfSELinux is in use, the Proton build container may fail to accessyour user's files. This is caused bySELinux's filesystemlabels. You may pass the--relabel-volumes switch toconfigure to cause thecontainer engine to relabel itsbind-mounts and allow access to those files from within thecontainer. This can be dangerous when used with system directories. Proceedwith caution and refer your container engine's manual.

make

Important make targets:

make install - install Proton into your user's Steam directory, see theinstall Protonlocally section for details.

make redist - create a redistribute build (redist/) that can be copied to~/.steam/root/compatibilitytools.d/.

make deploy - create a deployment build (deploy/). This is what we use todeploy Proton to Steam users via Steamworks.

make module=<module> module - build both 32- and 64-bit versions of thespecified wine module. This allows rapid iteration on one module. This targetis only useful after building Proton.

make dxvk /make vkd3d-proton - rebuild DXVK / vkd3d-proton.

To prevent symbol stripping addUNSTRIPPED_BUILD=1 to themakeinvocation. This should be used only with a clean build directory.

E.g.:

mkdir ../debug-proton-build && cd ../debug-proton-build../proton/configure.sh --enable-ccache --build-name=debug_buildmake UNSTRIPPED_BUILD=1 install

Steam ships with several versions of Proton, which games will use by default orthat you can select in Steam Settings' Steam Play page. Steam also supportsrunning games with local builds of Proton, which you can install on yourmachine.

To install a local build of Proton into Steam, make a new directory in~/.steam/root/compatibilitytools.d/ with a tool name of your choosing andplace the directory containing your redistributable build under that path.

Themake install target will perform this task for you, installing theProton build into the Steam folder for the current user. You will have torestart the Steam client for it to pick up on a new tool.

A correct local tool installation should look similar to this:

compatibilitytools.d/my_proton/├── compatibilitytool.vdf├── filelock.py├── LICENSE├── proton├── proton_dist.tar├── toolmanifest.vdf├── user_settings.sample.py└── version

To enable your local build in Steam, go to the Steam Play section of theSettings window. If the build was correctly installed, you should see"proton-localbuild" in the drop-down list of compatibility tools.

Each component of this software is used under the terms of their licenses.See theLICENSE files here, as well as theLICENSE,COPYING, etc filesin each submodule and directory for details. If you distribute a builtversion of Proton to other users, you must adhere to the terms of theselicenses.

Proton builds have their symbols stripped by default. You can switch to"debug" beta branch in Steam (search for Proton in your library,Properties... -> BETAS -> select "debug") or build without stripping (seeDebug Builds section).

The symbols are provided through the accompanying.debug files which mayneed to be explicitly loaded by the debugging tools. For GDB there's a helperscriptwine/tools/gdbinit.py (source it) that providesload-symbol-files(orlsf for short) command which loads the symbols for all the mapped files.

For tips on debugging seedocs/DEBUGGING.md.

For use withclangd LSP server and similar tooling.

Projects built using cmake or meson (e.g. vkd3d-proton) automatically come withcompile_commands.json. For autotools (e.g. wine) you have toconfigure thebuild with--enable-bear that usesbear to create the compilation database.It's not on by default as it make the build slightly slower.

The build system collects all the created compile_commands.json files in abuild subdirectory namedcompile_commands/.

The paths are translated to point to the real source (i.e. not the rsyncedcopy). It still may depend on build directory for things like auto-generatedconfig.h though and for wine it may be beneficial to runtools/make_requestsin you source directories as those changes are not committed.

You can then configure your editor to use that file for clangd in a few ways:

1. directly - some editors/plugins allow you to specify the path tocompile_commands.json
2. via.clangd file, e.g.

cd src/proton/wine/cat> .clangd<<EOFCompileFlags:  CompilationDatabase: ../build/current-dev/compile_commands/wine64/EOF

3. by symlinking:

ln -s ../build/current-dev/compile_commands/wine64/compile_commands.json.

Proton can be tuned at runtime to help certain games run. The Steam client setssome options for known games using theSTEAM_COMPAT_CONFIG variable.You can override these options using the environment variables described below.

The best way to set these environment overrides for all games is by renaminguser_settings.sample.py touser_settings.py and modifying it appropriately.This file is located in the Proton installation directory in your Steam library(often~/.steam/steam/steamapps/common/Proton #.#).

If you want to change the runtime configuration for a specific game, you canuse theSet Launch Options setting in the game'sProperties dialog in theSteam client. Set the variable, followed by%command%. For example, input"PROTON_USE_WINED3D=1 %command%" to use the OpenGL-based wined3d rendererinstead of the Vulkan-based DXVK renderer.

To enable an option, set the variable to a non-0 value. To disable anoption, set the variable to0. To use Steam's default configuration, donot specify the variable at all.

All of the below are runtime options. They do not effect permanent changes tothe Wine prefix. Removing the option will revert to the previous behavior.