howtox

How do I do X in Meson?

This page lists code snippets for common tasks. These are written mostly using the C compiler, but the same approach should work on almost all other compilers.

Set compiler

When first running Meson, set it in an environment variable.

CC=mycc meson <options>

Set extra compiler and linker flags

The behaviour is the same as with other build systems, with environment variables during first invocation.

CFLAGS=-fsomething LDFLAGS=-Wl,--linker-flag meson <options>

Use an argument only with a specific compiler

First check which arguments to use.

if meson.get_compiler('c').get_id() == 'clang'
  extra_args = ['-fclang-flag']
else
  extra_args = []
endif

Then use it in a target.

executable(..., c_args : extra_args)

If you want to use the arguments on all targets, then do this.

if meson.get_compiler('c').get_id() == 'clang'
  add_global_arguments('-fclang-flag', language : 'c')
endif

Set a command's output to configuration

txt = run_command('script', 'argument').stdout().strip()
cdata = configuration_data()
cdata.set('SOMETHING', txt)
configure_file(...)

Generate a runnable script with configure_file

configure_file preserves metadata so if your template file has execute permissions, the generated file will have them too.

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