ScidUp

Cross-Platform Chess Database and Analysis GUI. A fork of the magnificent Scid project.

⚠️⚠️⚠️ It is in the pre-release stage.

Aspirations

• Be Lean: Drop features and code paths that are not used or are obsolete.
• Modernise the codebase: Tests everywhere. Tcl/Tk 9. Re-organise the Tcl code.
• Improve Installation and Packaging.
• Enhance the feature-set with a special focus on ScidUp's inherited strengths:
  • The fantastic database format.
  • Analysis capability
  • Engine management

Non-Goals

• Backward compatibility with Scid 5.x series.

---

Download and Run

1. Head over to the Releases page.
2. Download the archive that matches your platform (Linux, macOS Apple Silicon, macOS Intel, Windows).
3. Extract the archive into a directory of your choice.
4. Read the included README.txt inside the extracted folder (platform-specific instructions). TL;DR
   • Linux/macOS: ./bin/scid-up
   • Windows: open bin/ and double-click scid-up.exe

---

Programming Setup

ScidUp doesn't require a whole lot of dependencies and setup to get started hacking on it.

Common

Prerequisites

• CMake 3.30+
• A C++ compiler toolchain
• Tcl/Tk 9 (ScidUp currently targets Tcl/Tk 9.0.3)

Configure and build

ScidUp uses CMake presets:

cmake --preset dev
cmake --build --preset dev

Run tests:

ctest --preset dev --output-on-failure

Or with disabled tests (don't do it unless you're debugging a build issue):

cmake --preset dev-no-checks
cmake --build --preset dev-no-checks

Pointing ScidUp at Tcl/Tk

dev / dev-no-checks do not hard-code a Tcl/Tk prefix.

If you have a dedicated Tcl/Tk prefix, the most reliable approach is to use DEPS_INSTALL_PREFIX (ScidUp will exclusively search it to avoid mixing Tcl/Tk installations from different providers):

export DEPS_INSTALL_PREFIX="/path/to/tcltk/prefix"
cmake --preset dev

Otherwise, if your Tcl/Tk is not in a default search path, pass a prefix explicitly:

cmake --preset dev -DCMAKE_PREFIX_PATH="/path/to/tcltk/prefix;$CMAKE_PREFIX_PATH"

Ubuntu

Notes

• A full GUI build requires X11 development headers (for example libx11-dev).
• ScidUp expects Tcl/Tk 9.0.3. If your system Tcl/Tk does not match, install a dedicated Tcl/Tk prefix and set DEPS_INSTALL_PREFIX.

Building Tcl/Tk 9.0.3 (suggested)

sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install -y libx11-dev

set -euo pipefail

PREFIX="$HOME/scidup-deps/install"
BUILD="$HOME/scidup-deps/build"

mkdir -p "$PREFIX" "$BUILD"
cd "$BUILD"

curl -L http://prdownloads.sourceforge.net/tcl/tcl9.0.3-src.tar.gz | tar -xzf -
pushd tcl9.0.3/unix
./configure --prefix="$PREFIX" --enable-64bit --enable-zipfs
make install
popd

curl -L http://prdownloads.sourceforge.net/tcl/tk9.0.3-src.tar.gz | tar -xzf -
pushd tk9.0.3/unix
./configure --prefix="$PREFIX" --enable-64bit --enable-zipfs --with-tcl="$BUILD/tcl9.0.3/unix"
make install
popd

ln -sf "$PREFIX/bin/tclsh9.0" "$PREFIX/bin/tclsh"
ln -sf "$PREFIX/bin/wish9.0" "$PREFIX/bin/wish"

Then:

export DEPS_INSTALL_PREFIX="$HOME/scidup-deps/install"
cmake --preset dev
cmake --build --preset dev
ctest --preset dev --output-on-failure

macOS (Apple Silicon)

Notes

• ScidUp expects Tcl/Tk 9.0.3. If your system Tcl/Tk does not match, install a dedicated Tcl/Tk prefix and set DEPS_INSTALL_PREFIX.

Building Tcl/Tk 9.0.3 (suggested)

This mirrors the release pipeline’s approach (pinned version, local prefix):

set -euo pipefail

PREFIX="$HOME/scidup-deps/install"
BUILD="$HOME/scidup-deps/build"

mkdir -p "$PREFIX" "$BUILD"
cd "$BUILD"

curl -L http://prdownloads.sourceforge.net/tcl/tcl9.0.3-src.tar.gz | tar -xzf -
pushd tcl9.0.3/unix
./configure --prefix="$PREFIX" --enable-64bit --enable-zipfs
make install
popd

curl -L http://prdownloads.sourceforge.net/tcl/tk9.0.3-src.tar.gz | tar -xzf -
pushd tk9.0.3/unix
./configure --prefix="$PREFIX" --enable-64bit --enable-zipfs --enable-aqua --with-tcl="$BUILD/tcl9.0.3/unix"
make install
popd

ln -sf "$PREFIX/bin/tclsh9.0" "$PREFIX/bin/tclsh"
ln -sf "$PREFIX/bin/wish9.0" "$PREFIX/bin/wish"

Then:

export DEPS_INSTALL_PREFIX="$HOME/scidup-deps/install"
cmake --preset dev
cmake --build --preset dev
ctest --preset dev --output-on-failure

---

License

ScidUp is distributed under the GNU GPL v2 (see COPYING). Unless stated otherwise, modifications and additions in this fork are © their respective contributors (see Git history) and licensed under the same terms.