Thunar - build, test, and debugging suggestions
First, check the Thunar README !
Then refer to the following pages for build instructions on all Xfce packages:
https://docs.xfce.org/xfce/building https://wiki.xfce.org/building/advanced
If dependencies are still missing, you will need to build and install the dependencies from source as well. (You might need to run “sudo /sbin/ldconfig -v” after installing shared libaries from source)
For testing only thunar itself, you don't need to install it. You can run it directly from the source folder. (Though if you want to test thunar plugins, you will need to install it first):
build/thunar/thunar -q;G_MESSAGES_DEBUG=all build/thunar/thunar
Here a workaround to as well test thunar plugin changes (thunar-sbr in this example) without the need to install thunar:
meson compile -C build -Dthunarx-dirs-envvar=true THUNARX_DIRS=~/git/thunar/plugins/thunar-sbr/.libs ./thunar/thunar
A full list of build flags can be found here: https://gitlab.xfce.org/xfce/thunar/-/blob/master/meson_options.txt?ref_type=heads