#Howto include other project via build.zig?

1 messages · Page 1 of 1 (latest)

gentle cave
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I started with the SDL example from Andrew (https://github.com/andrewrk/sdl-zig-demo/blob/master/README.md) and would like to add nfd-zig (https://github.com/fabioarnold/nfd-zig) as a project dependency. Since nfd-zig seems to be too outdated to be added as dependency in build.zig.zon, I was wondering whether I could add it as a dependency in my build.zig? I read about std.build.Pkg but this seems to be removed now. Using zig-windows-x86_64-0.12.0-dev.1486. Any hints?

GitHub
sdl-zig-demo/README.md at master · andrewrk/sdl-zig-demo

SDL2 hello world in zig. Contribute to andrewrk/sdl-zig-demo development by creating an account on GitHub.

GitHub
GitHub - fabioarnold/nfd-zig: OS-native file dialogs on Linux, macO...

OS-native file dialogs on Linux, macOS and Windows - GitHub - fabioarnold/nfd-zig: OS-native file dialogs on Linux, macOS and Windows

flat ravine
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nfd was updated 3 weeks ago, why do you say its too outdated?

gentle cave
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OK, maybe I don't get the concept about build.zig.zon yet but my understanding was that I could not add nfd-zig as a dependency in my build.zig.zon, could I?

flat ravine
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you definitely should be able to

gentle cave
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I tried to google a getting started on this but failed to find any helpful information. Could you provide me with a starting point?

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I would at least need a link to an archive, wouldn't I?

flat ravine
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yeah

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you can use that for the current latest commit

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in your build.zig.zon add

.nfd = .{
  .url = "https://github.com/fabioarnold/nfd-zig/archive/4701d11cf52866828bd682c19ddddf60f8152960.tar.gz"
},

in the .dependencies field then run zig build and itll tell you what hash its expecting, put that under the url

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then in build.zig you do

const nfd_dep = b.dependency("nfd", .{
  .target = target,
  .optimize = optimize,
});
exe.addModule("nfd", nfd_dep.module("nfd"));
exe.linkLibrary(nfd_dep.artifact("nfd"));

and that should work

#

then you can just @import("nfd") in your code

gentle cave
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Yes, that worked indeed. Thanks a million!

#

how did you find that archive URL?

flat ravine
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clicked the 4701d11 button at the end then copied the link it took me to but replaced commit with archive and added the tar.gz

image.png
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just github magic lol, there might be a more intuitive way

gentle cave
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OK, thanks for sharing some magic here 😉

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so what does it take a github repo then so that I can add it to my build.zig.zon like this and it will work?

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just a build.zig in the root directory of the repo?

ionic delta
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Most git sites have this functionality btw, tho some might have a slightly different url.

flat ravine
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depends what the library is doing, if its pure zig and not linking any C libraries you just need a build.zig that has b.addModule in it

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technically you dont even need that since you can access arbitrary files from downloaded dependencies now, but adding the module is much more convenient for users of the library

gentle cave
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a more general question as I'm new here: is this already documented somewhere or knowledge spreaded within the community?

gentle cave
ionic delta
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Build system doesn't have great documentation yet, unfortunately

flat ravine
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its common to recommend reading the source code of other zig projects to see how they do it

gentle cave
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OK, that basically confirms what my impression was so far. I'm lucky I finally ended up on discord. Thanks guys!

glacial briar
gentle cave
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a very simple example would be to include a header-only lib like stb_image.h

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a more advanced one would build a module from a set of headers and sources

flat ravine
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you pass a string like "src" and get a lazypath to the src folder from a dependency

ionic delta
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Assuming you have:

const dep = b.dependency("otherlib", .{});

You can use dep.path("path/in/pkg") to access arbitrary files from that dependency, wherever a LazyPath type is accepted as an argument.