Quick Start Guide

This guide will help you get Join framework up and running on your system in a few minutes.

Prerequisites

Join framework requires:

C++14 compatible compiler
CMake
Linux operating system

Dependencies

Join relies on the following libraries:

Library	Package	Purpose
OpenSSL	`libssl-dev`	TLS support and cryptographic operations
libnuma	`libnuma-dev`	NUMA memory binding in `join-core` (optional)
zlib	`zlib1g-dev`	Compression capabilities
Google Test	`libgtest-dev`	Unit testing (optional)
Google Mock	`libgmock-dev`	Mocking in tests (optional)

Note: OpenSSL is required by join-core for the TLS runtime. libnuma is optional: it is only needed when building with -DJOIN_ENABLE_NUMA=ON, which enables the mbind() NUMA binding methods of the memory backends, queues and allocators (and defines JOIN_HAS_NUMA).

Installing Dependencies

On Ubuntu/Debian:

sudo apt update && sudo apt install libssl-dev zlib1g-dev libgtest-dev libgmock-dev

# Optional: NUMA support (-DJOIN_ENABLE_NUMA=ON)
sudo apt install libnuma-dev

Download

Clone the latest source code from GitHub:

git clone https://github.com/joinframework/join.git

Configuration

Configure Join using CMake. Here are the most common configurations:

Standard Release Configuration

For production use:

cmake -B build -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=Release

Debug Configuration with Tests

For development with tests and coverage enabled:

cmake -B build -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=Debug -DJOIN_ENABLE_TESTS=ON

Configuration Options

Available CMake options:

Option	Description	Default
`CMAKE_BUILD_TYPE`	Build type: `Release`, `Debug`, `RelWithDebInfo`, `MinSizeRel`	`Release`
`BUILD_SHARED_LIBS`	Build as shared libraries (OFF for static)	`ON`
`JOIN_ENABLE_CRYPTO`	Enable crypto module	`ON`
`JOIN_ENABLE_DATA`	Enable data module	`ON`
`JOIN_ENABLE_FABRIC`	Enable fabric module	`ON`
`JOIN_ENABLE_SERVICES`	Enable services module	`ON`
`JOIN_ENABLE_NUMA`	Enable NUMA support	`OFF`
`JOIN_ENABLE_SAMPLES`	Build sample applications	`OFF`
`JOIN_ENABLE_TESTS`	Enable unit tests	`OFF`
`JOIN_ENABLE_COVERAGE`	Enable code coverage reporting	`OFF`
`CMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX`	Installation directory	`/usr/local`

Build

cmake --build build

Installation

sudo cmake --install build
sudo ldconfig

Running Tests

If you configured with tests enabled (-DJOIN_ENABLE_TESTS=ON):

ctest --test-dir build --output-on-failure

Using Join in Your Project

Once installed, use Join in your CMake projects:

cmake_minimum_required(VERSION 3.14)
project(MyApp)

find_package(join REQUIRED)

add_executable(myapp main.cpp)

target_link_libraries(myapp PRIVATE
    join::core
    join::crypto
    join::data
    join::fabric
    join::services
)

set_target_properties(myapp PROPERTIES
    CXX_STANDARD 14
    CXX_STANDARD_REQUIRED ON
)

Next Steps

Core Module — Reactor, sockets, threads, timers
Fabric Module — Interface management, ARP, DNS
Crypto Module — Hashing, signatures, TLS
Data Module — JSON, MessagePack, compression
Services Module — HTTP/HTTPS, SMTP/SMTPS

Additional Resources

API Documentation — Complete Doxygen reference
GitHub Repository — Source code
Issue Tracker — Report bugs or request features

Getting Help

If you encounter issues:

Search existing issues
Review the API documentation
Open a new issue with your system information, CMake configuration, complete error messages, and a minimal reproducible example

License

Join is released under the MIT License, giving you maximum freedom to use it in your projects, whether open source or proprietary.