208 lines
8.3 KiB
Markdown
208 lines
8.3 KiB
Markdown
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A programming language designed for robustness, optimality, and
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clarity.
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[Download & Documentation](https://ziglang.org/download/)
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## Feature Highlights
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* Small, simple language. Focus on debugging your application rather than
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debugging knowledge of your programming language.
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* Ships with a build system that obviates the need for a configure script
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or a makefile. In fact, existing C and C++ projects may choose to depend on
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Zig instead of e.g. cmake.
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* A fresh take on error handling which makes writing correct code easier than
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writing buggy code.
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* Debug mode optimizes for fast compilation time and crashing with a stack trace
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when undefined behavior *would* happen.
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* ReleaseFast mode produces heavily optimized code. What other projects call
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"Link Time Optimization" Zig does automatically.
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* Compatible with C libraries with no wrapper necessary. Directly include
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C .h files and get access to the functions and symbols therein.
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* Provides standard library which competes with the C standard library and is
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always compiled against statically in source form. Zig binaries do not
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depend on libc unless explicitly linked.
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* Optional type instead of null pointers.
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* Safe unions, tagged unions, and C ABI compatible unions.
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* Generics so that one can write efficient data structures that work for any
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data type.
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* No header files required. Top level declarations are entirely
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order-independent.
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* Compile-time code execution. Compile-time reflection.
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* Partial compile-time function evaluation which eliminates the need for
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a preprocessor or macros.
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* The binaries produced by Zig have complete debugging information so you can,
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for example, use GDB, MSVC, or LLDB to debug your software.
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* Built-in unit tests with `zig test`.
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* Friendly toward package maintainers. Reproducible build, bootstrapping
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process carefully documented. Issues filed by package maintainers are
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considered especially important.
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* Cross-compiling is a primary use case.
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* In addition to creating executables, creating a C library is a primary use
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case. You can export an auto-generated .h file.
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### Supported Targets
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#### Tier 1 Support
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* Not only can Zig generate machine code for these targets, but the standard
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library cross-platform abstractions have implementations for these targets.
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Thus it is practical to write a pure Zig application with no dependency on
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libc.
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* The CI server automatically tests these targets on every commit to master
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branch, and updates ziglang.org/download with links to pre-built binaries.
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* These targets have debug info capabilities and therefore produce stack
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traces on failed assertions.
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#### Tier 2 Support
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* There may be some standard library implementations, but many abstractions
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will give an "Unsupported OS" compile error. One can link with libc or other
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libraries to fill in the gaps in the standard library.
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* These targets are known to work, but are not automatically tested, so there
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are occasional regressions.
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* Some tests may be disabled for these targets as we work toward Tier 1
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support.
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#### Tier 3 Support
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* The standard library has little to no knowledge of the existence of this
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target.
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* Because Zig is based on LLVM, it has the capability to build for these
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targets, and LLVM has the target enabled by default.
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* These targets are not frequently tested; one will likely need to contribute
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to Zig in order to build for these targets.
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* The Zig compiler might need to be updated with a few things such as
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- what sizes are the C integer types
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- C ABI calling convention for this target
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- bootstrap code and default panic handler
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#### Tier 4 Support
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* Support for these targets is entirely experimental.
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* LLVM may have the target as an experimental target, which means that you
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need to use Zig-provided binaries for the target to be available, or
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build LLVM from source with special configure flags.
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* This target may be considered deprecated by an official party,
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[such as macosx/i386](https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT208436) in which
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case this target will remain forever stuck in Tier 4.
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#### Support Table
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| | freestanding | linux | macosx | windows | freebsd | netbsd | UEFI | other |
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|--------|--------------|--------|--------|---------|---------|------- | -------|--------|
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|x86_64 | Tier 2 | Tier 1 | Tier 1 | Tier 1 | Tier 2 | Tier 2 | Tier 2 | Tier 3 |
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|i386 | Tier 2 | Tier 2 | Tier 4 | Tier 2 | Tier 3 | Tier 3 | Tier 3 | Tier 3 |
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|arm | Tier 2 | Tier 3 | Tier 3 | Tier 3 | Tier 3 | Tier 3 | Tier 3 | Tier 3 |
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|arm64 | Tier 2 | Tier 2 | Tier 3 | Tier 3 | Tier 3 | Tier 3 | Tier 3 | Tier 3 |
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|bpf | Tier 3 | Tier 3 | N/A | N/A | Tier 3 | Tier 3 | Tier 3 | Tier 3 |
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|hexagon | Tier 3 | Tier 3 | N/A | N/A | Tier 3 | Tier 3 | Tier 3 | Tier 3 |
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|mips | Tier 3 | Tier 3 | N/A | N/A | Tier 3 | Tier 3 | Tier 3 | Tier 3 |
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|powerpc | Tier 3 | Tier 3 | N/A | N/A | Tier 3 | Tier 3 | Tier 3 | Tier 3 |
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|r600 | Tier 3 | Tier 3 | N/A | N/A | Tier 3 | Tier 3 | Tier 3 | Tier 3 |
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|amdgcn | Tier 3 | Tier 3 | N/A | N/A | Tier 3 | Tier 3 | Tier 3 | Tier 3 |
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|sparc | Tier 3 | Tier 3 | N/A | N/A | Tier 3 | Tier 3 | Tier 3 | Tier 3 |
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|s390x | Tier 3 | Tier 3 | N/A | N/A | Tier 3 | Tier 3 | Tier 3 | Tier 3 |
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|spir | Tier 3 | Tier 3 | N/A | N/A | Tier 3 | Tier 3 | Tier 3 | Tier 3 |
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|lanai | Tier 3 | Tier 3 | N/A | N/A | Tier 3 | Tier 3 | Tier 3 | Tier 3 |
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|wasm32 | Tier 4 | N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A |
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|wasm64 | Tier 4 | N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A |
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|riscv32 | Tier 4 | Tier 4 | N/A | N/A | Tier 4 | Tier 4 | Tier 4 | Tier 4 |
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|riscv64 | Tier 4 | Tier 4 | N/A | N/A | Tier 4 | Tier 4 | Tier 4 | Tier 4 |
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## Community
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* IRC: `#zig` on Freenode ([Channel Logs](https://irclog.whitequark.org/zig/)).
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* Reddit: [/r/zig](https://www.reddit.com/r/zig)
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* Email list: [~andrewrk/ziglang@lists.sr.ht](https://lists.sr.ht/%7Eandrewrk/ziglang)
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## Building
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[](https://dev.azure.com/ziglang/zig/_build/latest?definitionId=1&branchName=master)
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Note that you can
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[download a binary of master branch](https://ziglang.org/download/#release-master).
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### Stage 1: Build Zig from C++ Source Code
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#### Dependencies
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##### POSIX
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* cmake >= 2.8.5
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* gcc >= 5.0.0 or clang >= 3.6.0
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* LLVM, Clang, LLD development libraries == 7.x, compiled with the same gcc or clang version above
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##### Windows
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* cmake >= 2.8.5
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* Microsoft Visual Studio 2017
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* LLVM, Clang, LLD development libraries == 7.x, compiled with the same MSVC version above
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#### Instructions
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##### POSIX
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```
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mkdir build
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cd build
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cmake ..
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make
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make install
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bin/zig build --build-file ../build.zig test
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```
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##### MacOS
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```
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brew install cmake llvm@7
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brew outdated llvm@7 || brew upgrade llvm@7
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mkdir build
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cd build
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cmake .. -DCMAKE_PREFIX_PATH=/usr/local/opt/llvm@7/
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make install
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bin/zig build --build-file ../build.zig test
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```
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##### Windows
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See https://github.com/ziglang/zig/wiki/Building-Zig-on-Windows
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### Stage 2: Build Self-Hosted Zig from Zig Source Code
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*Note: Stage 2 compiler is not complete. Beta users of Zig should use the
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Stage 1 compiler for now.*
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Dependencies are the same as Stage 1, except now you can use stage 1 to compile
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Zig code.
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```
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bin/zig build --build-file ../build.zig --prefix $(pwd)/stage2 install
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```
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This produces `./stage2/bin/zig` which can be used for testing and development.
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Once it is feature complete, it will be used to build stage 3 - the final compiler
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binary.
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### Stage 3: Rebuild Self-Hosted Zig Using the Self-Hosted Compiler
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*Note: Stage 2 compiler is not yet able to build Stage 3. Building Stage 3 is
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not yet supported.*
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Once the self-hosted compiler can build itself, this will be the actual
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compiler binary that we will install to the system. Until then, users should
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use stage 1.
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#### Debug / Development Build
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```
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./stage2/bin/zig build --build-file ../build.zig --prefix $(pwd)/stage3 install
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```
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#### Release / Install Build
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```
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./stage2/bin/zig build --build-file ../build.zig install -Drelease-fast
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```
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