Zig Pkg

Next Zig version 🦎 - 0.11.x with Package Manager 🇺🇸

Anyone who has been following the development progress of zig already knows that the new version will offer package management in addition to many other features.

e.g.:

std.http.Server - HTTP/1.0 & HTTP/1.1;
std.http.Client - HTTP/1.0 & HTTP/1.1;
std.crypto.tls - 1.2 & 1.3;
Build Parallel (-j N);

For anyone not aware of that progress, please see the changelog below and this post.

How to use `zig-pkg`

Download Zig v0.11 or higher
Make on your project build.zig & build.zig.zon file

e.g:

build.zig

    const mylib_dep = b.dependency("mylib", .{ // <== as declared in build.zig.zon
        .target = target, // the same as passing `-Dtarget=<...>` to the library's build.zig script
        .optimize = optimize, // ditto for `-Doptimize=<...>`
    });
    const mylib = mylib_dep.artifact("mylib"); // <== has the location of the dependency files (mylib)
    
   // your executable config
    exe.linkLibrary(mylib); // <== link mylib
    exe.addModule("mylib", mylib.module("mylib")); // <== for zig project
    exe.installLibraryHeaders(mylib); // <== get copy mylib headers to zig-out/include (for C or C++ project)
    
// Glossary:
// mylib_dep: std.Build.Dependency
// (mylib_dep.artifact(...) == mylib): std.Build.Step.Compile (eql to addSharedLib/addStaticLib/addExecutable/addObject)
// mylib.module(...): std.Build.Module

build.zig.zon

.{
    .name = "example",
    .version = "0.1.0",
    .dependencies = .{
        .mylib = .{
            .url = "https://github.com/username/mylib/archive/[tag/commit-hash].tar.gz",
            .hash = "[multihash - sha256-2]",
        },
    },
}
// syntax: zig - nested anon struct

Explained:

However, to get the setting up above to work for all other userdev projects it is necessary to guarantee that the certain commands have been enabled on the library

C/C++ Headers

 exe.installLibraryHeaders(mylib); // <== C/C++ projects

need on mylib build.zig add:

mylib.installHeader("foo.h", "foo.h"); // copy single-header file to zig-out/include (rename is optional)
mylib.installHeadersDirectory("include", ""); // <== copy all headers (inc. subdir) to zig-out/include
// or
mylib.installHeadersDirectoryOptions(.{
        .source_dir = "src",
        .install_dir = .header,
        .install_subdir = "",
        .exclude_extensions = &.{
            "am",
            "gitignore",
        },
    });

It’s usual that some unix-like projects contain headers mixed with source code and other files like makefiles. Therefore it is necessary to determine what will be copied or not! For some projects, preferable to replace installHeadersDirectory() by installHeadersDirectoryOptions(.{}).

e.g.:

C++ libraries fork with zig-pkg

C libraries with zig-pkg

winpthreads
libmingw32_extended - need winpthreads to build.

Modules

Note: No need build.zig.zon file to local modules!

exe.addModule("mylib", mylib.module("mylib")); // <== for zig project only

need on mylib build.zig add:

const mylib_module = b.createModule(.{
        .source_file = .{
            .path = "src/mylib.zig",
        },
        // optional
        .dependencies = &.{
        .{ .name = "foo", .module = foo.module(b) },
        .{ .name = "bar", .module = bar.module(b) },
        .{ .name = "baz", .module = baz.module(b) },
    },
    });

// [...]    
    mylib.addModule("mylib", mylib_module);

Hope you enjoyed this brief post!! 😄

Keep in mind that the zig package manager is still under change, but is already used by some of the most known tools like: