2025-10-18 23:15 UTC+0200 Aleksander Czajczynski (hb fki.pl) ; Zig as LLVM C (cross)compiler

[Aleksander Czajczynski]

2025-10-18 23:15 UTC+0200 Aleksander Czajczynski (hb fki.pl)
+ config/bsd/zig-noauto.mk
+ config/bsd/zig.mk
+ config/common/zig-noauto.mk
+ config/common/zig.mk
+ config/darwin/zig-noauto.mk
+ config/darwin/zig.mk
+ config/linux/zig-noauto.mk
+ config/linux/zig.mk
+ config/win/zig-noauto.mk
+ config/win/zig.mk
* config/global.mk
* utils/hbmk2/hbmk2.prg
! typo fixed in Alpha target (this path was really untested)

+ added support for using Zig as LLVM C compiler frontend. Recent
idea comes from Marcos Gambeta Harbour++ fork, though I haven't
borrowed any code. Here the functionalty is complete, whole
Harbour source tree can be compiled, together with shared libs.

Zig has unique ability of managing cross-compiled builds, mostly
without downloading anything else. For example you should be able
to easily make a Linux+musl libc build of your Harbour application
that will run on any distribution with Linux kernel >= 2.6.39
(untested).

Zig is not auto-detected by the Harbour build process,
HB_COMPILER=zig
has to be defined. The only exception is that, hbmk2 on Windows can
locate "zig.exe" while building final Harbour applications. Usually
there are no conflicting tools on PATH on this platform.

After downloading zig from https://ziglang.org/download/
specific to your OS, assuming the tool being unpacked to
/home/user/zig or C:\zig, usage is as follows:

Linux/BSD native build:
PATH=$PATH:/home/user/zig
HB_COMPILER=zig make -j8

Unix to Windows x64 cross:
PATH=$PATH:/home/user/zig
export HB_ZIG_TARGET=x86_64-windows
# (or) export HB_ZIG_TARGET=x86_64-windows-gnu
export HB_CPU=x86_64
# have to build a Harbour for your host first, for a native hbmk2
export HB_HOST_BIN=/home/user/harbour/bin/linux/zig
export HB_PLATFORM=win
export HB_BUILD_NAME=64cross
export HB_COMPILER=zig
make -j16

Windows native build:
PATH=C:\zig;%PATH%
set HB_COMPILER=zig
win-make -j8

Windows to Windows-on-ARM cross:
set HB_ZIG_TARGET=aarch64-windows
set HB_CPU=arm64
set HB_HOST_BIN=C:\harbour\bin\win\zig
set HB_COMPILER=zig
win-make -j8

Windows to Linux ARM64:
set HB_USER_CFLAGS=-fPIC
set HB_ZIG_TARGET=aarch64-linux
set HB_PLATFORM=linux
set HB_CPU=arm64
set HB_HOST_BIN=C:\harbour\bin\win\zig
set HB_COMPILER=zig
win-make -j8

Instead of setting HB_ZIG_TARGET, the less convenient way is:
HB_USER_CFLAGS=-target aarch64-linux
HB_USER_LDFLAGS=-target aarch64-linux
HB_USER_DFLAGS=-target aarch64-linux

Some target platforms need PIC mode even for static builds,
in such case add:
HB_USER_CFLAGS=-fPIC

; TOFIX: shared lib symlinks are not created when cross-building from
Windows to Linux, could copy or adapt modern Windows
counterpart

olectl.h is missing when cross-building hbwin contrib from
Linux to Windows (likely needs headers from Windows SDK)

basically a non issue, but HB_CPU and HB_PLATFORM are not
guessed
from HB_ZIG_TARGET - conversion table seems to be doable, if
someone is interested in making a patch.