b5f73f8a7b
Previously, various doc comments heavily disagreed with the implementation on both what lives where on the filesystem at what time, and how that was represented in code. Notably, the combination of emit paths outside the cache and `disable_lld_caching` created a kind of ad-hoc "cache disable" mechanism -- which didn't actually *work* very well, 'most everything still ended up in this cache. There was also a long-standing issue where building using the LLVM backend would put a random object file in your cwd. This commit reworks how emit paths are specified in `Compilation.CreateOptions`, how they are represented internally, and how the cache usage is specified. There are now 3 options for `Compilation.CacheMode`: * `.none`: do not use the cache. The paths we have to emit to are relative to the compiler cwd (they're either user-specified, or defaults inferred from the root name). If we create any temporary files (e.g. the ZCU object when using the LLVM backend) they are emitted to a directory in `local_cache/tmp/`, which is deleted once the update finishes. * `.whole`: cache the compilation based on all inputs, including file contents. All emit paths are computed by the compiler (and will be stored as relative to the local cache directory); it is a CLI error to specify an explicit emit path. Artifacts (including temporary files) are written to a directory under `local_cache/tmp/`, which is later renamed to an appropriate `local_cache/o/`. The caller (who is using `--listen`; e.g. the build system) learns the name of this directory, and can get the artifacts from it. * `.incremental`: similar to `.whole`, but Zig source file contents, and anything else which incremental compilation can handle changes for, is not included in the cache manifest. We don't need to do the dance where the output directory is initially in `tmp/`, because our digest is computed entirely from CLI inputs. To be clear, the difference between `CacheMode.whole` and `CacheMode.incremental` is unchanged. `CacheMode.none` is new (previously it was sort of poorly imitated with `CacheMode.whole`). The defined behavior for temporary/intermediate files is new. `.none` is used for direct CLI invocations like `zig build-exe foo.zig`. The other cache modes are reserved for `--listen`, and the cache mode in use is currently just based on the presence of the `-fincremental` flag. There are two cases in which `CacheMode.whole` is used despite there being no `--listen` flag: `zig test` and `zig run`. Unless an explicit `-femit-bin=xxx` argument is passed on the CLI, these subcommands will use `CacheMode.whole`, so that they can put the output somewhere without polluting the cwd (plus, caching is potentially more useful for direct usage of these subcommands). Users of `--listen` (such as the build system) can now use `std.zig.EmitArtifact.cacheName` to find out what an output will be named. This avoids having to synchronize logic between the compiler and all users of `--listen`.
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, so you can find the language
reference at doc/langref.html, and the standard library documentation by
running zig std, which will open a browser tab.
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 >= 3.15
- System C/C++ Toolchain
- LLVM, Clang, LLD development libraries == 20.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 assembly files
- Some ELF linking features
- Most COFF/PE linking features
- Some WebAssembly linking features
- Ability to create import libs from def files
- Ability to create static archives from object files
- Ability to compile C, 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 this case, LLVM is not needed!
Furthermore, a compiler built this way provides an LLVM backend that produces bitcode files, which may be compiled into object files via a system Clang package. This can be used to produce system packages of Zig applications without the Zig package dependency on LLVM.
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.