MiKTeX

The MiKTeX Project Page is the place to go, if you are new to MiKTeX.

In short: MiKTeX is a modern C/C++ implementation of TeX & Friends for Windows, macOS and Linux. The MiKTeX source code is documented here: https://docs.miktex.org/hacking/index.html

MiKTeX is also a scalable TeX distribution ("Just enough TeX"):

• you have the option to start with MiKTeX executables and some configuration files
• in the course of authoring your documents, only necessary LaTeX packages, fonts etc. will be downloaded and installed

Building

MiKTeX can be built on Windows and Unix-like (including macOS) systems. Please consult these HOWTOs for platform-specific build instructions:

• https://miktex.org/howto/build-win
• https://miktex.org/howto/build-unx
• https://miktex.org/howto/build-mac

In addition, you can try one of the Dockerized build environments to build MiKTeX:

• Ubuntu
• Debian
• Fedora
• openSUSE

Deep diving

If you want to understand the MiKTeX source code, have a look at at HACKING.md.