Zig Programming Language Quick Start

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Programming/ Zig
| Programming Windows Linux Zig

Zig Programming Language Quick Start

Introduction

Zig is a general-purpose programming language and toolchain for maintaining robust, optimal, and reusable software.

  • Robust - behavior is correct even for edge cases such as out of memory.
  • Optimal - write programs the best way they can behave and perform.
  • Reusable - the same code works in many environments which have different constraints.
  • Maintainable - precisely communicate intent to the compiler and other programmers. The language imposes a low overhead to reading code and is resilient to changing requirements and environments.

Support Table

WebAssembly Support

  free standing emscripten WASI
wasm32 Tier 2 Tier 3 Tier 2
wasm64 Tier 4 Tier 4 Tier 4

Tier System

Zig uses a Tier System to communicate the level of support for different targets.

  free standing Linux 3.16+ macOS 10.13+ Windows 8.1+ FreeBSD 12.0+ NetBSD 8.0+
x86_64 Tier 1 Tier 1 Tier 2 Tier 2 Tier 2 Tier 2
arm64 Tier 1 Tier 2 N/A Tier 3 Tier 3 Tier 3
arm32 Tier 1 Tier 2 N/A Tier 3 Tier 3 Tier 3
mips32 LE Tier 1 Tier 2 N/A N/A Tier 3 Tier 3
mips64 Tier 3 Tier 3 N/A N/A Tier 3 Tier 3
riscv64 Tier 1 Tier 2 N/A N/A Tier 3 Tier 3
bpf Tier 3 Tier 3 N/A N/A Tier 3 Tier 3
s390x Tier 3 Tier 3 N/A N/A Tier 3 Tier 3
powerpc64 Tier 3 Tier 3 Tier 4 N/A Tier 3 Tier 3
… … … … … … …

Documentation & Download

Documentation

Download

Targets

Zig supports generating code for all targets that LLVM supports.

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$ zig targets

$ llc --version
$ llc -march=x86-64 -mattr=help
$ llc -march=riscv64 -mattr=help
$ llc -march=aarch64 -mattr=help
$ llc -march=mips -mattr=help
$ llc -march=arm -mattr=help
$ llc -march=wasm32 -mattr=help
$ llc -march=ppc64le -mattr=help

Hello World

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$ cat << EOF > HelloWorld.zig
const std = @import("std");

pub fn main() !void {
    const stdout = std.io.getStdOut().writer();
    try stdout.print("Hello, {}!\n", .{"world"});
}
EOF

wasm32-wasi

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# https://github.com/wasmerio/wasmer
# https://github.com/bytecodealliance/wasmtime
$ zig build-exe -target wasm32-wasi -O ReleaseSmall --strip HelloWorld.zig && wasmer HelloWorld.wasm && wasmtime HelloWorld.wasm
Hello, world!
Hello, world!
$ file HelloWorld.wasm && du -ks HelloWorld.wasm
HelloWorld.wasm: WebAssembly (wasm) binary module version 0x1 (MVP)
4       HelloWorld.wasm

x86_64-linux-gnu

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$ zig build-exe HelloWorld.zig
$ ./HelloWorld
Hello, world!
$ du -ks HelloWorld
832     HelloWorld
$ file HelloWorld
HelloWorld: ELF 64-bit LSB executable, x86-64, version 1 (SYSV), statically linked, with debug_info, not stripped

$ zig build-exe -target x86_64-linux-gnu -mcpu core_avx2 -O ReleaseSmall -fPIC --strip HelloWorld.zig && ./HelloWorld
Hello, world!
$ file HelloWorld && du -ks HelloWorld
HelloWorld: ELF 64-bit LSB executable, x86-64, version 1 (SYSV), statically linked, not stripped
8       HelloWorld

mips-linux-gnu

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$ zig build-exe -target mips-linux-gnu -mcpu mips32r2 -O ReleaseSmall --strip HelloWorld.zig && qemu-mips-static HelloWorld
$ file HelloWorld && du -ks HelloWorld
HelloWorld: ELF 32-bit MSB executable, MIPS, MIPS32 rel2 version 1 (SYSV), statically linked, not stripped
12      HelloWorld


$ zig build-exe -target mips-linux-gnu -mcpu mips32r6 -O ReleaseSmall --strip HelloWorld.zig && qemu-mips-static ./HelloWorld
$ file HelloWorld && du -ks HelloWorld
HelloWorld: ELF 32-bit MSB executable, MIPS, MIPS32 rel6 version 1 (SYSV), statically linked, not stripped
12      HelloWorld

arm-linux-gnueabihf

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$ zig build-exe -target arm-linux-gnueabihf -mcpu arm1176jzf_s -O ReleaseSafe HelloWorld.zig  && qemu-arm-static ./HelloWorld
$ file HelloWorld && du -ks HelloWorld
HelloWorld: ELF 32-bit LSB executable, ARM, EABI5 version 1 (SYSV), statically linked, with debug_info, not stripped
780     HelloWorld


$ zig build-exe -target arm-linux-gnueabihf  -mcpu cortex_a7 -O ReleaseSafe  HelloWorld.zig  && qemu-arm-static ./HelloWorld
$ file HelloWorld && du -ks HelloWorld
HelloWorld: ELF 32-bit LSB executable, ARM, EABI5 version 1 (SYSV), statically linked, with debug_info, not stripped
772     HelloWorld

aarch64-linux-gnu

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$ zig build-exe -target aarch64-linux-gnu -mcpu cortex_a72 -O ReleaseSafe -fPIC  HelloWorld.zig && qemu-aarch64-static HelloWorld
Hello, world!
$ file HelloWorld && du -ks HelloWorld
HelloWorld: ELF 64-bit LSB executable, ARM aarch64, version 1 (SYSV), statically linked, with debug_info, not stripped
596     HelloWorld

powerpc64le-linux-gnu

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$ zig build-exe -target powerpc64le-linux-gnu -mcpu pwr9 -O ReleaseSafe -fPIC HelloWorld.zig && qemu-ppc64le-static HelloWorld
Hello, world!
$ file HelloWorld && du -ks HelloWorld
HelloWorld: ELF 64-bit LSB executable, 64-bit PowerPC or cisco 7500, version 1 (SYSV), statically linked, with debug_info, not stripped
632     HelloWorld

riscv64-linux-gnu

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$ zig build-exe -target riscv64-linux-gnu -O ReleaseSafe HelloWorld.zig && qemu-riscv64-static HelloWorld
Hello, world!
$ file HelloWorld && du -ks HelloWorld
HelloWorld: ELF 64-bit LSB executable, UCB RISC-V, version 1 (SYSV), statically linked, with debug_info, not stripped
728     HelloWorld