sumatrapdf/Claude.md at master · sumatrapdfreader/sumatrapdf

This is a C++ program for Windows, using mostly win32 windows API functions

We don't use STL but our own string / helper / container functions implemented in src\utils directory

Assume that Visual Studio command-line tools are available in the PATH environment variable (cl.exe, msbuild.exe etc.)

Our code is in src/ directory. External dependencies are in ext/ directory and mupdf\ directory

To build run: bun ./cmd/build.ts

This creates ./out/dbg64/SumatraPDF.exe executable

To debug run: windbgx -Q -o -g ./out/dbg64/SumatraPDF.exe

After making a change to .cpp, .c or .h file (and before running build.ts), run clang-format on those files to reformat them in place

Never commit changes automatically. Always wait for explicit command to commit changes.

Adding a new advanced setting

To add a new advanced setting:

To add a new command:

add to cmd/gen-commands.ts, always at the end of the list (before the "CmdNone" command)
run "bun cmd/gen-commands.ts" to regenerate src/Commands.h and src/Commands.cpp
document in docs/md/Commands.md
document in docs/md/Version-history.md in next section

To add a new cmd-line flag:

The Bash tool runs under Git Bash (MSYS2), not cmd.exe. This causes critical issues with Windows-style commands:

NEVER use 2>nul — Bash interprets this literally and creates a file called nul. On Windows NTFS, nul is a reserved device name, making the file extremely difficult to delete (requires UAC/admin privileges). Use 2>/dev/null instead.
NEVER use rmdir /s /q — Bash rmdir does not understand cmd.exe flags. Use rm -rf instead.
NEVER use del — Not available in Bash. Use rm instead.
NEVER use dir — Use ls instead.
For Windows-native commands, wrap in cmd /c "..." explicitly.
In general, always use Unix-style commands and paths in the Bash tool.