Show HN: Xmake, a modern C/C++ build utility
GitHub - xmake-io/xmake: 🔥 A cross-platform build utility based on Lua

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 Handling Issues with higher priority
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 Review your xmake.lua and provide suggestions for improvement

Introduction (中文)
What is Xmake?

Xmake is a cross-platform build utility based on the Lua scripting language.
Xmake is very lightweight and has no dependencies outside of the standard library.
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

Run target

Debug target

Run test

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




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



buildsystem
Termux (8core/-j12)
buildsystem
MacOS (8core/-j12)




xmake
24.890s
xmake
12.264s


ninja
25.682s
ninja
11.327s


cmake(gen+make)
5.416s+28.473s
cmake(gen+make)
1.203s+14.030s


cmake(gen+ninja)
4.458s+24.842s
cmake(gen+ninja)
0.988s+11.644s



Single task compilation



buildsystem
Termux (-j1)
buildsystem
MacOS (-j1)




xmake
1m57.707s
xmake
39.937s


ninja
1m52.845s
ninja
38.995s


cmake(gen+make)
5.416s+2m10.539s
cmake(gen+make)
1.203s+41.737s


cmake(gen+ninja)
4.458s+1m54.868s
cmake(gen+ninja)
0.988s+38.022s



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 %s", target:targetfile())
    end)
Automatic integration of dependent packages
Download and use packages in xmake-repo or third-party repositories:
add_requires("tbox >1.6.1", "libuv master", "vcpkg::ffmpeg", "brew::pcre2/libpcre2-8")
add_requires("conan::openssl/1.1.1g", {alias = "openssl", optional = true, debug = true})
target("test")
    set_kind("binary")
    add_files("src/*.c")
    add_packages("tbox", "libuv", "vcpkg::ffmpeg", "brew::pcre2/libpcre2-8", "openssl")
In addition, we can also use the xrepo command to quickly install dependencies.
Qt QuickApp Program
target("test")
    add_rules("qt.quickapp")
    add_files("src/*.cpp")
    add_files("src/qml.qrc")
Cuda Program
target("test")
    set_kind("binary")
    add_files("src/*.cu")
    add_cugencodes("native")
    add_cugencodes("compute_35")
WDK/UMDF Driver Program
target("echo")
    add_rules("wdk.driver", "wdk.env.umdf")
    add_files("driver/*.c")
    add_files("driver/*.inx")
    add_includedirs("exe")

target("app")
    add_rules("wdk.binary", "wdk.env.umdf")
    add_files("exe/*.cpp")
For more WDK driver examples (UMDF/KMDF/WDM), please visit WDK Program Examples
Darwin Applications
target("test")
    add_rules("xcode.application")
    add_files("src/*.m", "src/**.storyboard", "src/*.xcassets")
    add_files("src/Info.plist")
Framework and Bundle Program (Darwin)
target("test")
    add_rules("xcode.framework") -- or xcode.bundle
    add_files("src/*.m")
    add_files("src/Info.plist")
OpenMP Program
add_requires("libomp", {optional = true})
target("loop")
    set_kind("binary")
    add_files("src/*.cpp")
    add_rules("c++.openmp")
    add_packages("libomp")
Zig Program
target("test")
    set_kind("binary")
    add_files("src/main.zig")
Automatically fetch remote toolchain
fetch a special version of LLVM
Require the Clang version packaged with LLM-10 to compile a project.
add_requires("llvm 10.x", {alias = "llvm-10"})
target("test")
    set_kind("binary")
    add_files("src/*.c")
    set_toolchains("llvm@llvm-10")
Fetch a cross-compilation toolchain
We can also pull a specified cross-compilation toolchain in to compile the project.
add_requires("muslcc")
target("test")
    set_kind("binary")
    add_files("src/*.c")
    set_toolchains("@muslcc")
Fetch toolchain and packages
We can also use the specified muslcc cross-compilation toolchain to compile and integrate all dependent packages.
add_requires("muslcc")
add_requires("zlib", "libogg", {system = false})

set_toolchains("@muslcc")

target("test")
    set_kind("binary")
    add_files("src/*.c")
    add_packages("zlib", "libogg")
Plugins
Generate IDE project file plugin（makefile, vs2002 - vs2022 .. ）
$ xmake project -k vsxmake -m "debug,release" # New vsproj generator (Recommended)
$ xmake project -k vs -m "debug,release"
$ xmake project -k cmake
$ xmake project -k ninja
$ xmake project -k compile_commands
Run a custom lua script plugin
$ xmake l ./test.lua
$ xmake l -c "print('hello xmake!')"
$ xmake l lib.detect.find_tool gcc
$ xmake l
> print("hello xmake!")
> {1, 2, 3}
< {
    1,
    2,
    3
  }
To see a list of bultin plugs, please visit Builtin plugins.
Please download and install other plugins from the plugins repository xmake-plugins.
IDE/Editor Integration

xmake-vscode



xmake-sublime



xmake-idea



xmake.vim (third-party, thanks @luzhlon)
xmake-visualstudio (third-party, thanks @HelloWorld886)
xmake-qtcreator (third-party, thanks @Arthapz)

Xmake Gradle Plugin (JNI)
We can use the xmake-gradle plugin to compile JNI libraries via gradle.
plugins {
  id 'org.tboox.gradle-xmake-plugin' version '1.1.5'
}

android {
    externalNativeBuild {
        xmake {
            path "jni/xmake.lua"
        }
    }
}

The xmakeBuild task will be injected into the assemble task automatically if the gradle-xmake-plugin has been applied.
$ ./gradlew app:assembleDebug
> Task :nativelib:xmakeConfigureForArm64
> Task :nativelib:xmakeBuildForArm64
>> xmake build
[ 50%]: cache compiling.debug nativelib.cc
[ 75%]: linking.debug libnativelib.so
[100%]: build ok!
>> install artifacts to /Users/ruki/projects/personal/xmake-gradle/nativelib/libs/arm64-v8a
> Task :nativelib:xmakeConfigureForArmv7
> Task :nativelib:xmakeBuildForArmv7
>> xmake build
[ 50%]: cache compiling.debug nativelib.cc
[ 75%]: linking.debug libnativelib.so
[100%]: build ok!
>> install artifacts to /Users/ruki/projects/personal/xmake-gradle/nativelib/libs/armeabi-v7a
> Task :nativelib:preBuild
> Task :nativelib:assemble
> Task :app:assembleDebug
CI Integration
GitHub Action
The github-action-setup-xmake plugin for GitHub Actions can allow you to use Xmake with minimal efforts if you use GitHub Actions for your CI pipeline.
uses: xmake-io/github-action-setup-xmake@v1
with:
  xmake-version: latest
Who is using Xmake?
The list of people and projects who are using Xmake is available here.
If you are using Xmake, you are welcome to submit your information to the above list through a PR, so that other users and the developers can gauge interest.  Ihis also let users to use xmake more confidently and give us motivation to continue to maintain it.
This will help the Xmake project and it's community grow stronger and expand!
Contacts

Email：waruqi@gmail.com
Homepage：xmake.io
Community

Chat on Reddit
Chat on Telegram
Chat on Discord
Chat on QQ Group: 343118190, 662147501


Source Code：GitHub, Gitee
WeChat Public: tboox-os

Thanks
This project exists thanks to all the people who have contributed:


TitanSnow: Provide the xmake logo and install scripts
uael: Provide the semantic versioning library sv
OpportunityLiu: Improve cuda, tests and ci
xq144: Improve xrepo env shell, and contribute a lot of packages to the xmake-repo repository.
enderger: Helped smooth out the edges on the English translation of the README

