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<refentry id="glib-cross-compiling" revision="7 Aug 2018">
<refmeta>
<refentrytitle>Cross-compiling the GLib package</refentrytitle>
<manvolnum>3</manvolnum>
<refmiscinfo>GLib Library</refmiscinfo>
</refmeta>

<refnamediv>
<refname>Cross-compiling the GLib Package</refname>
<refpurpose>
How to cross-compile GLib
</refpurpose>
</refnamediv>

    <refsect1 id="cross">
      <title>Building the Library for a different architecture</title>
      <para>
        Cross-compilation is the process of compiling a program or
        library on a different architecture or operating system then
        it will be run upon. GLib is slightly more difficult to 
        cross-compile than many packages because much of GLib is
        about hiding differences between different systems. 
      </para>
      <para>
        These notes cover things specific to cross-compiling GLib;
        for general information about cross-compilation, see the
        <ulink url="http://mesonbuild.com/Cross-compilation.html">meson</ulink>
        info pages.
      </para>
      <para>
        GLib tries to detect as much information as possible about
        the target system by compiling and linking programs without
        actually running anything; however, some information GLib
        needs is not available this way. This information needs
        to be provided to meson via a ‘cross file’.
      </para>
      <para>
        As an example of using a cross file, to cross compile for
        the ‘MingW32’ Win64 runtime environment on a Linux system,
        create a file <filename>cross_file.txt</filename> with the following
        contents:
      </para>
      <programlisting> 
[host_machine]
system = 'windows'
cpu_family = 'x86_64'
cpu = 'x86_64'
endian = 'little'

[properties]
c_args = []
c_link_args = []

[binaries]
c = 'x86_64-w64-mingw32-gcc'
cpp = 'x86_64-w64-mingw32-g++'
ar = 'x86_64-w64-mingw32-ar'
strip = 'x86_64-w64-mingw32-strip'
pkgconfig = 'x86_64-w64-mingw32-pkg-config'
windres = 'x86_64-w64-mingw32-windres'
      </programlisting>
      <para>
        Then execute the following commands:
      </para>
      <programlisting>
meson --cross_file cross_file.txt builddir
      </programlisting>
      <para>
        The complete list of cross properties follows. Most
         of these won't need to be set in most cases.
      </para>
    </refsect1>
    <refsect1 id="cross-properties">
      <title>Cross properties</title>
      <formalpara>
        <title>have_[function]</title>

        <para>
           When meson checks if a function is supported, the test can be
           overridden by setting the
           <literal>have_<replaceable>function</replaceable></literal> property
           to <constant>true</constant> or <constant>false</constant>.
           For example <programlisting>Checking for function "alloca" : YES</programlisting>
           can be overridden by setting <programlisting>have_alloca = false</programlisting>
        </para>
      </formalpara>
      <formalpara>
        <title>growing_stack=[true/false]</title>

        <para>
           Whether the stack grows up or down. Most places will want
           <constant>false</constant>.
           A few architectures, such as PA-RISC need <constant>true</constant>.
        </para>
      </formalpara>
      <formalpara>
         <title>have_strlcpy=[true/false]</title>

         <para>
            Whether you have <function>strlcpy()</function> that matches 
            OpenBSD. Defaults to <constant>false</constant>, which is safe,
            since GLib uses a built-in version in that case.
	</para>
      </formalpara>
      <formalpara>
         <title>va_val_copy=[true/false]</title>

         <para>
            Whether <type>va_list</type> can be copied as a pointer. If set 
            to <constant>false</constant>, then <function>memcopy()</function>
            will be used. Only matters if you don't have
            <function>va_copy()</function> or <function>__va_copy()</function>.
            (So, doesn't matter for GCC.)
            Defaults to <constant>true</constant> which is slightly more common
            than <constant>false</constant>.
        </para>
      </formalpara>
      <formalpara>
         <title>have_c99_vsnprintf=[true/false]</title>

         <para>
            Whether you have a <function>vsnprintf()</function> with C99 
            semantics. (C99 semantics means returning the number of bytes 
            that would have been written had the output buffer had enough 
            space.) Defaults to <constant>false</constant>.
         </para>
      </formalpara>
      <formalpara>
         <title>have_c99_snprintf=[true/false]</title>

         <para>
            Whether you have a <function>snprintf()</function> with C99 
            semantics. (C99 semantics means returning the number of bytes 
            that would have been written had the output buffer had enough 
            space.) Defaults to <constant>false</constant>.
         </para>
      </formalpara>

    </refsect1>

</refentry>
