zig build introspection

[green urchin]

Is there a way to get the path into which zig build is going to / has installed the output executable? Or at least the project name so that I can build the default one myself? I need that for some generic debugger config -- it needs to know which executable to run on.

[bleak pumice]

if you're running zig build you have control over the path, I think this may be helpful https://ziglang.org/learn/build-system/#installing-build-artifacts

[still sparrow]

getEmittedBin is probably what you're looking for? if you're working with a build.zig https://ziglang.org/documentation/master/std/#A;std:Build.Step.Compile.getEmittedBin

you'll have something like const exe = b.addExecutable(...) and then you can get the output path with exe.getEmittedBin()

in general executables are emitted by default into the zig-out/bin directory

[safe fox]

It's not super clear what you're asking about.
A well-behaved build.zig script will always install files in the path specified by the --prefix option (defaults to zig-out/), never outside of this directory. Different kinds of artifacts have different default subdirectories of the install prefix they will be placed in (bin/, lib/, include/, etc.) but the build script is free to override them.

There's currently no way to dry run a build script or inspect where it will place stuff, but there is a recent proposal suggesting adding some kind of --inspect option
https://github.com/ziglang/zig/issues/18688

[tough oasis]

Yeah and I have a POC implementation. https://github.com/ExpidusOS/zig/tree/poc/build-inspector

[green urchin]

Assume I don't have access to build.zig. I'm configuring a generic dap configuration in neovim that should work for any (typical) project

But I think I have an idea of how to do that

I'm just going to scan the output directory and make the user select an executable

[still sparrow]

since build.zig allows you to change the emitted location, and you can only find the executable name from the build.zig this is the only exact way. for like 99% of zig projects just looking in zig-out should work, though!