DEV Community

ruki
ruki

Posted on

xmake v2.5.1 released, Support for Apple Silicon and more powerful package management

#linux

xmake is a lightweight cross-platform build tool based on Lua. It uses xmake.lua to maintain project builds. Compared with makefile/CMakeLists.txt, the configuration syntax is more Concise and intuitive, very friendly to novices, can get started quickly in a short time, allowing users to focus more on the actual project development.

This is the first version of xmake this year and the first version that is fully adapted to support Apple Silicon (macOS ARM) devices.

In this version, we mainly improved the integrated support for C/C++ dependent packages, which is more stable, and can be more flexible to achieve customized configuration compilation.

In addition, we also focused on improving the vs/vsxmake two vs project generator plugins, fixing many details, and also supporting the sub-project group, and now it is possible to generate a project structure similar to the following figure.

About Zig, because it has fixed a lot of problems that I have reported before in v0.7.1. Now xmake can already support the compilation of zig projects.

At the same time, we have newly developed a luarocks-build-xmake plugin to replace luarocks' built-in build system with xmake.

Finally, in this version, we continue to improve the xmake f --menu graphical configuration menu, which fully supports mouse operation and scrolling support, and also supports utf8.

New feature introduction

Add add_requireconfs to improve package configuration

Despite the previous version, we can define and configure dependent packages by add_requires("libpng", {configs = {shared = true}}).

However, if the user project has a huge project and many dependent packages, and each package requires different compilation configuration parameters, the configuration will still be very cumbersome and has limitations, such as the inability to rewrite the internal sub-dependent package configuration.

Therefore, we have added add_requireconfs to configure the configuration of each package and its sub-dependencies more flexibly and conveniently. Below we focus on several usages:

Set the configuration of the specified package

This is the basic usage. For example, we have declared a package through add_requires("zlib"), and want to expand the configuration of this zlib later and change it to dynamic library compilation. You can configure it in the following way.

add_requires("zlib")
add_requireconfs("zlib", {configs = {shared = true}})
Enter fullscreen mode Exit fullscreen mode

It is equivalent to

add_requires("zlib", {configs = {shared = true}})
Enter fullscreen mode Exit fullscreen mode
Set general default configuration

The above usage, we still don't see any practical use, but if we rely on more we can see the effect, such as the following:

add_requires("zlib", {configs = {shared = true}})
add_requires("pcre", {configs = {shared = true}})
add_requires("libpng", {configs = {shared = true}})
add_requires("libwebp", {configs = {shared = true}})
add_requires("libcurl", {configs = {shared = false}})
Enter fullscreen mode Exit fullscreen mode

Is it very cumbersome, if we use add_requireconfs to set the default configuration, it can be greatly simplified to the following configuration:

add_requireconfs("*", {configs = {shared = true}})
add_requires("zlib")
add_requires("pcre")
add_requires("libpng")
add_requires("libwebp")
add_requires("libcurl", {configs = {shared = false}})
Enter fullscreen mode Exit fullscreen mode

For the above configuration, we use pattern matching through add_requireconfs("*", {configs = {shared = true}}) to set all dependent packages to compile and install dynamic libraries by default.

However, we used add_requires("libcurl", {configs = {shared = false}}) to configure libcurl to compile and install static libraries.

The final configuration result is: zlib/pcre/libpng/libwebp is a shared library, and libcurl is a static library.

Through pattern matching, we can put some common configurations of each package into the unified add_requireconfs to pre-configure, which greatly simplifies the definition of each add_requires.

!> By default, for the same configuration, xmake will give priority to the configuration in add_requires instead of add_requireconfs.

If the version is set in add_requires("zlib 1.2.11"), the configuration of add_requires will be used first, and the version configuration in add_requireconfs will be completely ignored. Of course, we can also completely override the version specified in add_requires through override .

add_requires("zlib 1.2.11")
add_requireconfs("zlib", {override = true, version = "1.2.10"})
Enter fullscreen mode Exit fullscreen mode
Rewrite package dependency configuration

In fact, the biggest use of add_requireconfs is to allow users to rewrite the configuration of specific dependent packages of the installation package.

What does it mean? For example, our project integrates the package libpng and uses a dynamic library version, but the zlib library that libpng depends on is actually a static library version.

add_requires("libpng", {configs = {shared = true}})
Enter fullscreen mode Exit fullscreen mode

So if we want to change the zlib package that libpng depends on to be compiled as a dynamic library, how should we configure it? This requires add_requireconfs.

add_requires("libpng", {configs = {shared = true}})
add_requireconfs("libpng.zlib", {configs = {shared = true}})
Enter fullscreen mode Exit fullscreen mode

Through the writing method of libpng.zlib dependency path, specify an internal dependency and rewrite the internal dependency configuration.

If the dependency path is deep, such as the dependency chain of foo -> bar -> xyz, we can write: foo.bar.xyz

We can also rewrite the internal zlib library version that libpng depends on:

add_requires("libpng")
add_requireconfs("libpng.zlib", {version = "1.2.10"})
Enter fullscreen mode Exit fullscreen mode
Pattern matching for cascading dependencies

If a package has a lot of dependencies, and the dependency level is also very deep, what to do, for example, the package libwebp, its dependencies are:

libwebp
  - libpng
    - zlib
    - cmake
  - libjpeg
  - libtiff
    - zlib
  - giflib
  - cmake
Enter fullscreen mode Exit fullscreen mode

If I want to rewrite all the dependent libraries in libwebp to add specific configuration, then the configuration one by one will be very cumbersome. At this time, the recursive dependency pattern matching of add_requireconfs() is needed to support.

add_requires("libwebp")
add_requireconfs("libwebp.**|cmake", {configs = {cxflags = "-DTEST"}})
Enter fullscreen mode Exit fullscreen mode

In the above configuration, we added -DTEST to compile all the library dependencies in libwebp, but the cmake dependency is a build tool dependency, and we can exclude it by way of |xxx.

The pattern matching here is very similar to add_files().

We are giving a few examples. For example, this time we only rewrite the single-level dependency configuration under libwebp to enable the debugging library:

add_requires("libwebp")
add_requireconfs("libwebp.*|cmake", {debug = true})
Enter fullscreen mode Exit fullscreen mode

Graphical configuration supports mouse and scroll operations

We upgraded the tui component library used by xmake: LTUI, added support for the mouse, and scrolling support for some components, we can go to the graphical configuration, More flexible and convenient configuration of compilation options.

stdin redirect support

In the previous version, the process execution interface such as os.execv/os.runv provided by xmake only supports stdout/stderr output redirection, but does not support stdin input redirection, so in this version, we also do it Supported.

The usage is as follows:

os.execv("foo", {"arg1", "arg2"}, {stdin = "/tmp/a"})
Enter fullscreen mode Exit fullscreen mode

When we execute the process, we can use the /tmp/a file as the redirected input. Of course, we can also pass {stdout = "/tmp/out"} as the redirected output.

vs project grouping support

We have added a new interface set_group to support grouping of each target. This interface is currently only used for vs/vsxmake project generation. The subproject directory tree within the vs project is displayed in groups according to the specified structure, but it may also be Other modules increase grouping support.

For example, for the following grouping configuration:

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

target("test1")
    set_kind("binary")
    add_files("src/*.cpp")
    set_group("group1")

target("test2")
    set_kind("binary")
    add_files("src/*.cpp")
    set_group("group1")

target("test3")
    set_kind("binary")
    add_files("src/*.cpp")
    set_group("group1/group2")

target("test4")
    set_kind("binary")
    add_files("src/*.cpp")
    set_group("group3/group4")

target("test5")
    set_kind("binary")
    add_files("src/*.cpp")

target("test6")
    set_kind("binary")
    add_files("src/*.cpp")
Enter fullscreen mode Exit fullscreen mode

The effect of the generated VS project directory structure is as follows:

Among them, set_group("group1/group2") can set the target to the secondary group.

Automatically update vs project

If you feel that it is cumbersome to generate and update the VS project through the xmake project -k vsxmake command every time, we can now configure the plugin.vsxmake.autoupdate rule in xmake.lua to achieve automatic update.

Users can automatically update the VS project if there are changes to the file list or xmake.lua after each execution of the build in the VS project.

add_rules("plugin.vsxmake.autoupdate")

target("test")
    set_kind("binary")
    add_files("src/*.c")
Enter fullscreen mode Exit fullscreen mode

Improve vs/vsxmake project plugin

In addition to the group support and automatic updates mentioned above, in this version, we also fixed a lot of VS project-related issues, such as: intellisense prompt improvement, path truncation problem repair, full support for remote dependency packages

Improve windows registry support

xmake improves the internal winos module and adds some interfaces to access the registry more conveniently and obtain the registry configuration on windows.

winos.registry_keys

  • Get the list of registry builds

Support through pattern matching, traverse to obtain the registry key path list, * is single-level path matching, ** is recursive path matching.

local keypaths = winos.registry_keys("HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\\SOFTWARE\\*\\Windows NT\\*\\CurrentVersion\\AeDebug")
for _, keypath in ipairs(keypaths) do
    print(winos.registry_query(keypath .. ";Debugger"))
end
Enter fullscreen mode Exit fullscreen mode

winos.registry_values

  • Get a list of registry value names

Support to obtain the value name list of the specified key path through pattern matching, and the string after the ; is the specified key name pattern matching string.

local valuepaths = winos.registry_values("HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\\SOFTWARE\\xx\\AeDebug;Debug*")
for _, valuepath in ipairs(valuepaths) do
    print(winos.registry_query(valuepath))
end
Enter fullscreen mode Exit fullscreen mode

winos.registry_query

  • Get the registry value

Get the value under the specified registry path, if the value name is not specified, then get the default value of the key path

local value, errors = winos.registry_query("HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\\SOFTWARE\\Microsoft\\Windows NT\\CurrentVersion\\AeDebug")
local value, errors = winos.registry_query("HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\\SOFTWARE\\Microsoft\\Windows NT\\CurrentVersion\\AeDebug;Debugger")
Enter fullscreen mode Exit fullscreen mode

Support for building Zig project

In the last version, xmake has experimentally supported zig, but there were also many pitfalls during the period, especially when building on windows/macos encountered many problems.

Then in the latest zig 0.7.1, most of the problems I encountered have been fixed, and now xmake can already support zig project compilation.

We can quickly create a Zig empty project with the following command:

$ xmake create -l zig console
Enter fullscreen mode Exit fullscreen mode

The content of xmake.lua is as follows:

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

target("console")
    set_kind("binary")
    add_files("src/*.zig")
Enter fullscreen mode Exit fullscreen mode

As you can see, the configuration method is actually no different from C/C++. Because Zig and C have good binary compatibility, we can also use add_requires to add remote dependency support for C/C++ packages to the zig project.

Then execute xmake to complete the compilation.

$ xmake
Enter fullscreen mode Exit fullscreen mode

Then continue to run the run command, you can directly execute the zig program and output the running result.

$ xmake run
Hello world!
Enter fullscreen mode Exit fullscreen mode

We can also easily implement the mixed compilation support of C and Zig, just add the corresponding C code file.

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

target("console")
    set_kind("binary")
    add_files("src/*.zig", "src/*.c")
Enter fullscreen mode Exit fullscreen mode

For complete code examples, see: Zig with C

Luarocks plugin

luarocks is a package management tool of lua, which provides the installation and integration of various lua modules, but it uses a built-in construction mechanism to build lua c modules.

For example, in its rockspec file, the builtin build type is used to describe the construction of common lua c modules:

build = {
    type = "builtin",
    modules = {
        ["module.hello"] = {
            sources = "src/test.c"
        }
    },
    copy_directories = {}
}
Enter fullscreen mode Exit fullscreen mode

This is not a problem for small modules, but if the c code structure of the module is more complicated, its built-in construction rules still have many limitations and are not flexible. In addition, switching msvc / mingw tool chain and parameter configuration etc. Neither is flexible enough.

Therefore, xmake provides luarocks=build-xmake plugin to use xmake to replace the built-in build system of luarocks. The replacement method is also very simple. You only need to buildin Change the build type to xmake and add the luarocks-build-xmake dependency.

dependencies = {
    "lua >= 5.1",
    "luarocks-build-xmake"
}
build = {
    type = "xmake",
    modules = {
        ["module.hello"] = {
            sources = "src/test.c"
        }
    },
    copy_directories = {}
}
Enter fullscreen mode Exit fullscreen mode

But this is still very cumbersome. It is still necessary to describe the rules based on the source file list in the modules in the rockspec file, and then luarocks-build-xmake will automatically generate xmake.lua according to the configuration to complete the build.

But since xmake is used, your own lua module can be maintained with xmake.lua, so the build configuration is more flexible, so we only need the following.

dependencies = {
    "lua >= 5.1",
    "luarocks-build-xmake"
}
build = {
    type = "xmake",
    copy_directories = {}
}
Enter fullscreen mode Exit fullscreen mode

You only need to set the current switch to xmake compilation, and use the xmake.lua rules file built into the lua module project.

Support for deploying Qt programs on windows

Thank you very much for the contribution of @SirLynix, xmake can already support the deployment and installation of Qt applications on windows.

We only need to maintain a Qt program normally, for example:

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

target("demo")
     add_rules("qt.quickapp")
     add_headerfiles("src/*.h")
     add_files("src/*.cpp")
     add_files("src/qml.qrc")
Enter fullscreen mode Exit fullscreen mode

Then, we only need to execute the following compile and install commands, and xmake will automatically call the windeployqt.exe program to install and deploy our Qt application.

$ xmake
$ xmake install -o d:\installdir
Enter fullscreen mode Exit fullscreen mode

Related patches: #1145

In addition, in the previous version, xmake has also supported the deployment and packaging of Qt programs for macOS and android versions. Each time only normal compilation commands are required, the QT .app/.apk installation package can be generated.

$ xmake f -p android --ndk=/xxx/android-ndk-r20b --sdk=/xxx
$ xmake
Enter fullscreen mode Exit fullscreen mode

Some bug fixes

We have also fixed many problems reported by users. Here we introduce some more important bug fixes, such as:

We fixed the problem of empty double quotes in add_defines("TEST=\"hello world\""), which caused errors in previous compilation.

In addition, we improved the search and support of the vstudio environment, and solved the problem of compilation failure caused by Chinese in the user's home directory and environment variables.

We have also improved the llvm toolchain to solve the problem of the lack of isysroot configuration when using the llvm tool chain under macOS if xcode is not installed, and the occasional failure of the header file dependency compilation under msvc.

Changelog

New features

  • #1035: The graphics configuration menu fully supports mouse events, and support scroll bar
  • #1098: Support stdin for os.execv
  • #1079: Add autoupdate plugin rule for vsxmake, add_rules("plugin.vsxmake.autoupdate")
  • Add xmake f --vs_runtime=MT and set_runtimes("MT") to set vs runtime for targets and packages
  • #1032: Support to enum registry keys and values
  • #1026: Support group for vs/vsxmake project
  • #1178: Add add_requireconfs() api to rewrite configs of depend packages
  • #1043: Add luarocks.module rule for luarocks-build-xmake
  • #1190: Support for Apple Silicon (macOS ARM)
  • #1145: Support Qt deploy for Windows, thanks @SirLynix

Change

  • #1072: Fix and improve to parse cl deps
  • Support utf8 for ui modules and xmake f --menu
  • Improve to support zig on macOS
  • #1135: Improve multi-toolchain and multi-platforms for targets
  • #1153: Improve llvm toolchain to support sysroot on macOS
  • #1071: Improve to generate vs/vsxmake project to support for remote packages
  • Improve vs/vsxmake project plugin to support global set_arch() setting
  • #1164: Improve to launch console programs for vsxmake project
  • #1179: Improve llvm toolchain and add isysroot

Bugs fixed

  • #1091: Fix incorrect ordering of inherited library dependencies
  • #1105: Fix c++ language intellisense for vsxmake
  • #1132: Fix TrimEnd bug for vsxmake
  • #1142: Fix git not found when installing packages
  • Fix macos.version bug for macOS Big Sur
  • #1084: Fix add_defines() bug (contain spaces)
  • #1195: Fix unicode problem for vs and improve find_vstudio/os.exec

Top comments (0)

Read next

hamilldivyesh profile image

Choosing a VPS/VDS Server in 2024: My TOP-4 Picks

hamill -

xxzeroxx profile image

How to Make Your Own Commands in Linux Terminal

Antonio Silva -

574n13y profile image

File Management Systems

Vivesh -

busa profile image

LINUX GUIDE USING UBUNTU

Busa Ayim-Odu -