xmake

A cross-platform build utility based on Lua
Modern C/C++ build tool: Simple, Fast, Powerful dependency package integration

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Technical support

You can also consider sponsoring us to get extra technical support services via the Github sponsor program. If you do, you can get access to the xmake-io/technical-support repository, which has the following benefits:

• Handling Issues with higher priority
• One-to-one technical consulting service
• Review your xmake.lua and provide suggestions for improvement

Introduction (中文)

What is Xmake?

1. Xmake is a cross-platform build utility based on the Lua scripting language.
2. Xmake is very lightweight and has no dependencies outside of the standard library.
3. Uses the xmake.lua file to maintain project builds with a simple and readable syntax.

Xmake can be used to directly build source code (like with Make or Ninja), or it can generate project source files like CMake or Meson. It also has a built-in package management system to help users integrate C/C++ dependencies.

Xmake = Build backend + Project Generator + Package Manager + [Remote|Distributed] Build + Cache

Although less precise, one can still understand Xmake in the following way:

Xmake ≈ Make/Ninja + CMake/Meson + Vcpkg/Conan + distcc + ccache/sccache

If you want to know more, please refer to: the Documentation, GitHub or Gitee. You are also welcome to join our community.

The official Xmake repository can be found at xmake-io/xmake-repo.

Installation

With cURL

curl -fsSL https://xmake.io/shget.text | bash

With Wget

wget https://xmake.io/shget.text -O - | bash

With PowerShell

Invoke-Expression (Invoke-Webrequest 'https://xmake.io/psget.text' -UseBasicParsing).Content

Other installation methods

If you don't want to use the above scripts to install Xmake, visit the Installation Guide for other installation methods (building from source, package managers, etc.).

Simple Project Description

target("console")
    set_kind("binary")
    add_files("src/*.c")

Creates a new target console of kind binary, and adds all the files ending in .c in the src directory.

Package dependencies

add_requires("tbox 1.6.*", "zlib", "libpng ~1.6")

Adds a requirement of tbox v1.6, zlib (any version), and libpng v1.6.

The official xmake package repository exists at: xmake-repo

Command line interface reference

The below assumes you are currently in the project's root directory.

Build a project

$ xmake

Run target

$ xmake run console

Debug target

$ xmake run -d console

Run test

$ xmake test

Configure platform

$ xmake f -p [windows|linux|macosx|android|iphoneos ..] -a [x86|arm64 ..] -m [debug|release]
$ xmake

Menu configuration

$ xmake f --menu

Supported platforms

• Windows (x86, x64, arm, arm64, arm64ec)
• macOS (i386, x86_64, arm64)
• Linux (i386, x86_64, arm, arm64, riscv, mips, 390x, sh4 ...)
• *BSD (i386, x86_64)
• Android (x86, x86_64, armeabi, armeabi-v7a, arm64-v8a)
• iOS (armv7, armv7s, arm64, i386, x86_64)
• WatchOS (armv7k, i386)
• AppleTVOS (armv7, arm64, i386, x86_64)
• AppleXROS (arm64, x86_64)
• MSYS (i386, x86_64)
• MinGW (i386, x86_64, arm, arm64)
• Cygwin (i386, x86_64)
• Wasm (wasm32, wasm64)
• Haiku (i386, x86_64)
• Harmony (x86_64, armeabi-v7a, arm64-v8a)
• Cross (cross-toolchains ..)

Supported toolchains

$ xmake show -l toolchains
xcode         Xcode IDE
msvc          Microsoft Visual C/C++ Compiler
clang-cl      LLVM Clang C/C++ Compiler compatible with msvc
yasm          The Yasm Modular Assembler
clang         A C language family frontend for LLVM
go            Go Programming Language Compiler
dlang         D Programming Language Compiler (Auto)
dmd           D Programming Language Compiler
ldc           The LLVM-based D Compiler
gdc           The GNU D Compiler (GDC)
gfortran      GNU Fortran Programming Language Compiler
zig           Zig Programming Language Compiler
sdcc          Small Device C Compiler
cuda          CUDA Toolkit (nvcc, nvc, nvc++, nvfortran)
ndk           Android NDK
rust          Rust Programming Language Compiler
swift         Swift Programming Language Compiler
llvm          A collection of modular and reusable compiler and toolchain technologies
cross         Common cross compilation toolchain
nasm          NASM Assembler
gcc           GNU Compiler Collection
mingw         Minimalist GNU for Windows
gnu-rm        GNU Arm Embedded Toolchain
envs          Environment variables toolchain
fasm          Flat Assembler
tinycc        Tiny C Compiler
emcc          A toolchain for compiling to asm.js and WebAssembly
icc           Intel C/C++ Compiler
ifort         Intel Fortran Compiler
ifx           Intel LLVM Fortran Compiler
muslcc        The musl-based cross-compilation toolchain
fpc           Free Pascal Programming Language Compiler
wasi          WASI-enabled WebAssembly C/C++ toolchain
nim           Nim Programming Language Compiler
circle        A new C++20 compiler
armcc         ARM Compiler Version 5 of Keil MDK
armclang      ARM Compiler Version 6 of Keil MDK
c51           Keil development tools for the 8051 Microcontroller Architecture
icx           Intel LLVM C/C++ Compiler
dpcpp         Intel LLVM C++ Compiler for data parallel programming model based on Khronos SYCL
masm32        The MASM32 SDK
iverilog      Icarus Verilog
verilator     Verilator open-source SystemVerilog simulator and lint system
cosmocc       build-once run-anywhere
hdk           Harmony SDK

Supported languages

• C and C++
• Objective-C and Objective-C++
• Swift
• Assembly
• Golang
• Rust
• Dlang
• Fortran
• Cuda
• Zig
• Vala
• Pascal
• Nim
• Verilog
• FASM
• NASM
• YASM
• MASM32
• Cppfront

Features

Xmake exhibits:

• Simple yet flexible configuration grammar.
• Quick, dependency-free installation.
• Easy compilation for most all supported platforms.
• Supports cross-compilation with intelligent analysis of cross toolchain information.
• Extremely fast parallel compilation support.
• Supports C++ modules (new in C++20).
• Supports cross-platform C/C++ dependencies with built-in package manager.
• Multi-language compilation support including mixed-language projects.
• Rich plug-in support with various project generators (ex. Visual Studio/Makefiles/CMake/compile_commands.json)
• REPL interactive execution support
• Incremental compilation support with automatic analysis of header files
• Built-in toolchain management
• A large number of expansion modules
• Remote compilation support
• Distributed compilation support
• Local and remote build cache support

Supported Project Types

Xmake supports the below types of projects:

• Static libraries
• Shared libraries
• Console/CLI applications
• CUDA programs
• Qt applications
• WDK drivers (umdf/kmdf/wdm)
• WinSDK applications
• MFC applications
• Darwin applications (with metal support)
• Frameworks and bundles (in Darwin)
• SWIG modules (Lua, Python, ...)
• LuaRocks modules
• Protobuf programs
• Lex/Yacc programs
• Linux kernel modules

Package management

Download and build

Xmake can automatically fetch and install dependencies!

Supported package repositories

• Official package repository xmake-repo (tbox >1.6.1)
• Official package manager Xrepo
• User-built repositories
• Conan (conan::openssl/1.1.1g)
• Conda (conda::libpng 1.3.67)
• Vcpkg (vcpkg:ffmpeg)
• Homebrew/Linuxbrew (brew::pcre2/libpcre2-8)
• Pacman on archlinux/msys2 (pacman::libcurl)
• Apt on ubuntu/debian (apt::zlib1g-dev)
• Clib (clib::clibs/bytes@0.0.4)
• Dub (dub::log 0.4.3)
• Portage on Gentoo/Linux (portage::libhandy)
• Nimble for nimlang (nimble::zip >1.3)
• Cargo for rust (cargo::base64 0.13.0)
• Zypper on openSUSE (zypper::libsfml2 2.5)

Package management features

• The official repository provides nearly 500+ packages with simple compilation on all supported platforms
• Full platform package support, support for cross-compiled dependent packages
• Support package virtual environment using xrepo env shell
• Precompiled package acceleration for Windows (NT)
• Support self-built package repositories and private repository deployment
• Third-party package repository support for repositories such as: vcpkg, conan, conda, etc.
• Supports automatic pulling of remote toolchains
• Supports dependency version locking

Processing architecture

Below is a diagram showing roughly the architecture of Xmake, and thus how it functions.

Distributed Compilation

• Cross-platform support.
• Support for MSVC, Clang, GCC and other cross-compilation toolchains.
• Support for building for Android, Linux, Windows NT, and Darwin hosts.
• No dependencies other than the compilation toolchain.
• Support for build server load balancing scheduling.
• Support for real time compressed transfer of large files (lz4).
• Almost zero configuration cost, no shared filesystem required, for convenience and security.

For more details see: #274

Remote Compilation

For more details see: #622

Local/Remote Build Cache

For more details see: #622

Benchmark

Xmake's speed on is par with Ninja! The test project: xmake-core

Multi-task parallel compilation

Single task compilation

More Examples

Debug and release profiles

add_rules("mode.debug", "mode.release")

target("console")
    set_kind("binary")
    add_files("src/*.c")
    if is_mode("debug") then
        add_defines("DEBUG")
    end

Custom scripts

target("test")
    set_kind("binary")
    add_files("src/*.c")
    after_build(function (target)
        print("hello: %s", target:name())
        os.exec("echo