Build from Source

clice builds with Bazel alone. Bazel downloads everything the build uses: the C++ toolchain and the prebuilt LLVM/Clang libraries of one xclang release, clice-io's clang toolchain, and the other libraries clice links. The repository's pixi and npm set up the tools the tests and the docs need; building clice needs neither.

Requirements

• Bazel, run through bazelisk, which fetches the release .bazelversion names.

• git and Node.js on PATH: the build stamps clice with the version git describe gives, through a Node script.

• On Windows, Bash (which Git for Windows includes) and a short Bazel output root, as Bazel's default one is too deep for Windows paths. Put it in %USERPROFILE%\.bazelrc:

  startup --output_user_root=C:/b

Building

bazel build //:bin/clice

clice is build/RelWithDebInfo/bin/bin/clice, beside the resource directory it reads clang's headers from, build/RelWithDebInfo/bin/lib/clang.

The build types are configurations, each with a directory of its own, build/<type>:

Configuration	Effect
--config=RelWithDebInfo	The default: optimized, with debug info
--config=Debug	Light optimization (-O1) with Address Sanitizer, on x86_64 Linux and arm64 macOS

--platforms=@xclang//platforms:<triple> builds for another target: x86_64 Linux builds every other one, for example --platforms=@xclang//platforms:aarch64-apple-darwin.

The LLVM/Clang libraries hold ThinLTO bitcode, so every link of a program redoes their code generation, minutes per program. lld keeps what it generated in a cache, /var/tmp/xclang-thinlto (C:/xclang-thinlto on Windows), and later links take seconds.

bazel build //:package //:symbols builds the release archive and the symbol package, whose clice.gsym scripts/symbolize.py reads: clice.tar.gz and clice-symbol.tar.xz in build/<type>/bin (.zip on Windows).

Working on clice

bazel run @compdb//:refresh -- --output_groups=+compilation_prerequisites_INTERNAL_ writes a compile_commands.json of clice's own sources to the repository root, for clice to work on its own code; the output group builds the generated headers the commands read.

The tests need the tools pixi installs. bazel build //:dist builds clice with the unit tests, then pixi run test runs the unit tests and the cases (--config=Debug and pixi run test Debug for the Debug build); tests/README.md says how a case is written.

Another LLVM Build

clice links the LLVM/Clang libraries of the exact version it is written for, not the system's. A build of one's own replaces the release's with --repo_env=XCLANG_LIBCLANG_ROOT=<directory> (XCLANG_LIBCLANG_ASAN_ROOT for the ASan one); it has to be built the way xclang builds it, by xclang's scripts/toolchain.ts.