build system #

notes on zig's build system, much of it from reading ghostty (terminal emulator) and bun (javascript runtime), both large production zig builds.

notes #

• basics - module imports, installing artifacts, why a build with no -Doptimize is Debug
• organization - structuring build.zig for large projects
• dependencies - vendored vs system libs, lazy deps, pinning, one version per package per graph
• codegen - generating zig source at build time
• cross-compilation - targeting multiple platforms, CPU features, glibc and musl
• distribution - cross-compile matrix in a release step, static-linking facts, strip for size, shipping tarballs

sources #

• ghostty, bun