#Libraries in Zig

1 messages · Page 1 of 1 (latest)

wide mist
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Hi, I'm currently making a library for Zig and I would like to know how to working with making libraries. Like does it work just like C ? Is there something I need to know ?

mighty sphinx
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What do you mean by'library'? Are you wanting to make static/dynamic libraries that C code can call, or just Zig packages that other Zig code can use (i.e. compiled from source into another Zig project)?

wide mist
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Zig for Zig

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Maybe I should have said package yeah

weak belfry
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well if you're making a zig package then it's pretty much ready for use in other zig code

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it's mostly about configuring build script

wide mist
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What about using it in a project ?

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I just put the source code in src ?

weak belfry
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No you add it through build zig

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and then you @import it

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check some zig libraries for examples

mighty sphinx
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there are a few different options you could take

wide mist
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But where do I put the library ?

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Anywhere ?

weak belfry
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but not higher than project root

wide mist
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So in the project

weak belfry
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but note that you can't do "../*"

wide mist
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Also, isn't it better making .o files like C ?

mighty sphinx
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Not really

weak belfry
mighty sphinx
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Not if a zig compilation is consuming it, you wouldn't do that without a specific reason

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(like maybe it could speed up compilation times, if that's an issue)

weak belfry
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if your library is for zig there's no reason to write a C api if you plan to use it in zig.

weak belfry
mighty sphinx
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oh really?

weak belfry
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well zig caches artifacts

mighty sphinx
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true

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but I'm sure there would be situations where it's a win for compilation speed, though it doesn't feel ziggy

weak belfry
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and either way, distributing .o files is a bad idea, .a exists for that reason.

mighty sphinx
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Note that you can put the package source outside your build root (i.e. a directory that is not a child of where your root file is) by using packages in your build.zig

weak belfry
weak belfry
mighty sphinx
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You can

weak belfry
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does add package now work with outside path?

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finally

mighty sphinx
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You can set up your source tree like this:

project_root/
  - src/ <- we're going to build from a file in here
  - deps/ <- external zig package source files
  - build.zig

You can then have you're build.zig add packages from files in deps to compilations rooted in src

weak belfry
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this is not what you said

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deps is child of root

weak belfry
mighty sphinx
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which is the thing that prevents you from doing @import("../*")

weak belfry
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what?

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ok

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i think we confused @wide mist enough

mighty sphinx
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probably :P

wide mist
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Sorry I wasn't reading xD

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Thanks for the help :D

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Could you tell me more about build.zig too ?

mighty sphinx
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build.zig is a file that gets compiled into an executable used for executing build steps

wide mist
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Yeah, I mean about the Builder

mighty sphinx
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I mean it really depends on what you want to do - the builder builds a directed graph or steps, you get to decide what those steps do. The best way to learn about it is probably going to be to look at a few articles posted online (https://zig.news/xq/zig-build-explained-part-1-59lf comes to mind, not sure if it will contain anything that has changed since it was written), read the source code (look in lib/std/build.zig and lib/std/build/*, and if you want lib/build_runner.zig which is what executes build()), or you could search for and ask in #1019652020308824145 about specific things you want to accomplish.

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