240d0b68f6
Part of #19063. Primarily, this moves Aro from deps/ to lib/compiler/ so that it can be lazily compiled from source. src/aro_translate_c.zig is moved to lib/compiler/aro_translate_c.zig and some of Zig CLI logic moved to a main() function there. aro_translate_c.zig becomes the "common" import for clang-based translate-c. Not all of the compiler was able to be detangled from Aro, however, so it still, for now, remains being compiled with the main compiler sources due to the clang-based translate-c depending on it. Once aro-based translate-c achieves feature parity with the clang-based translate-c implementation, the clang-based one can be removed from Zig. Aro made it unnecessarily difficult to depend on with these .def files and all these Zig module requirements. I looked at the .def files and made these observations: - The canonical source is llvm .def files. - Therefore there is an update process to sync with llvm that involves regenerating the .def files in Aro. - Therefore you might as well just regenerate the .zig files directly and check those into Aro. - Also with a small amount of tinkering, the file size on disk of these generated .zig files can be made many times smaller, without compromising type safety in the usage of the data. This would make things much easier on Zig as downstream project, particularly we could remove those pesky stubs when bootstrapping. I have gone ahead with these changes since they unblock me and I will have a chat with Vexu to see what he thinks.
A general-purpose programming language and toolchain for maintaining robust, optimal, and reusable software.
Documentation
If you are looking at this README file in a source tree, please refer to the Release Notes, Language Reference, or Standard Library Documentation corresponding to the version of Zig that you are using by following the appropriate link on the download page.
Otherwise, you're looking at a release of Zig, and you can find documentation here:
- doc/langref.html
- doc/std/index.html
Installation
A Zig installation is composed of two things:
- The Zig executable
- The lib/ directory
At runtime, the executable searches up the file system for the lib/ directory, relative to itself:
- lib/
- lib/zig/
- ../lib/
- ../lib/zig/
- (and so on)
In other words, you can unpack a release of Zig anywhere, and then begin
using it immediately. There is no need to install it globally, although this
mechanism supports that use case too (i.e. /usr/bin/zig and /usr/lib/zig/).
Building from Source
Ensure you have the required dependencies:
- CMake >= 3.5
- System C/C++ Toolchain
- LLVM, Clang, LLD development libraries == 17.x
Then it is the standard CMake build process:
mkdir build
cd build
cmake ..
make install
For more options, tips, and troubleshooting, please see the Building Zig From Source page on the wiki.
Building from Source without LLVM
In this case, the only system dependency is a C compiler.
cc -o bootstrap bootstrap.c
./bootstrap
This produces a zig2 executable in the current working directory. This is a
"stage2" build of the compiler,
without LLVM extensions, and is
therefore lacking these features:
- Release mode optimizations
- aarch64 machine code backend
@cImport/zig translate-c- Ability to compile C files
- Ability to compile assembly files
- Some ELF linking features
- Most COFF/PE linking features
- Some WebAssembly linking features
- Ability to output LLVM bitcode
- Windows resource file compilation
- Ability to create import libs from def files
- Automatic importlib file generation for Windows DLLs
- Ability to create static archives from object files
- Ability to compile C++, Objective-C, and Objective-C++ files
However, a compiler built this way does provide a C backend, which may be useful for creating system packages of Zig projects using the system C toolchain. In such case, LLVM is not needed!
Contributing
Zig is Free and Open Source Software. We welcome bug reports and patches from everyone. However, keep in mind that Zig governance is BDFN (Benevolent Dictator For Now) which means that Andrew Kelley has final say on the design and implementation of everything.
One of the best ways you can contribute to Zig is to start using it for an open-source personal project.
This leads to discovering bugs and helps flesh out use cases, which lead to further design iterations of Zig. Importantly, each issue found this way comes with real world motivations, making it straightforward to explain the reasoning behind proposals and feature requests.
You will be taken much more seriously on the issue tracker if you have a personal project that uses Zig.
The issue label Contributor Friendly exists to help you find issues that are limited in scope and/or knowledge of Zig internals.
Please note that issues labeled Proposal but do not also have the Accepted label are still under consideration, and efforts to implement such a proposal have a high risk of being wasted. If you are interested in a proposal which is still under consideration, please express your interest in the issue tracker, providing extra insights and considerations that others have not yet expressed. The most highly regarded argument in such a discussion is a real world use case.
For more tips, please see the Contributing page on the wiki.
Community
The Zig community is decentralized. Anyone is free to start and maintain their own space for Zig users to gather. There is no concept of "official" or "unofficial". Each gathering place has its own moderators and rules. Users are encouraged to be aware of the social structures of the spaces they inhabit, and work purposefully to facilitate spaces that align with their values.
Please see the Community wiki page for a public listing of social spaces.