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Building from Source

Note that you can download a binary of master branch.

Stage 1: Build Zig from C++ Source Code

Dependencies

POSIX

• cmake >= 2.8.5
• gcc >= 5.0.0 or clang >= 3.6.0
• LLVM, Clang, LLD development libraries == 10.x, compiled with the same gcc or clang version above
  • Use the system package manager, or build from source.

Windows

• cmake >= 3.15.3
• Microsoft Visual Studio. Supported versions:
  • 2015 (version 14)
  • 2017 (version 15.8)
  • 2019 (version 16)
• LLVM, Clang, LLD development libraries == 10.x
  • Use the pre-built binaries or build from source.

Instructions

POSIX

mkdir build
cd build
cmake ..
make install

MacOS

brew install cmake llvm
brew outdated llvm || brew upgrade llvm
mkdir build
cd build
cmake .. -DCMAKE_PREFIX_PATH=$(brew --prefix llvm) -DZIG_PREFER_CLANG_CPP_DYLIB=ON
make install

Windows

See https://github.com/ziglang/zig/wiki/Building-Zig-on-Windows

Stage 2: Build Self-Hosted Zig from Zig Source Code

Note: Stage 2 compiler is not complete. Beta users of Zig should use the Stage 1 compiler for now.

Dependencies are the same as Stage 1, except now you can use stage 1 to compile Zig code.

bin/zig build --prefix $(pwd)/stage2

This produces ./stage2/bin/zig which can be used for testing and development. Once it is feature complete, it will be used to build stage 3 - the final compiler binary.

Stage 3: Rebuild Self-Hosted Zig Using the Self-Hosted Compiler

Note: Stage 2 compiler is not yet able to build Stage 3. Building Stage 3 is not yet supported.

Once the self-hosted compiler can build itself, this will be the actual compiler binary that we will install to the system. Until then, users should use stage 1.

Debug / Development Build

./stage2/bin/zig build --prefix $(pwd)/stage3

Release / Install Build

./stage2/bin/zig build install -Drelease