zig/doc/build.zig.zon.md

build.zig.zon Documentation

This is the manifest file for build.zig scripts. It is named build.zig.zon in order to make it clear that it is metadata specifically pertaining to build.zig.

• build root - the directory that contains build.zig

Top-Level Fields

name

String. Required.

This is the default name used by packages depending on this one. For example, when a user runs zig fetch --save <url>, this field is used as the key in the dependencies table. Although the user can choose a different name, most users will stick with this provided value.

It is redundant to include "zig" in this name because it is already within the Zig package namespace.

version

String. Required.

semver

minimum_zig_version

String. Optional.

semver

This is currently advisory only; the compiler does not yet do anything with this version.

dependencies

Struct.

Each dependency must either provide a url and hash, or a path.

url

String.

When updating this field to a new URL, be sure to delete the corresponding hash, otherwise you are communicating that you expect to find the old hash at the new URL.

hash

String.

multihash

This is computed from the file contents of the directory of files that is obtained after fetching url and applying the inclusion rules given by paths.

This field is the source of truth; packages do not come from a url; they come from a hash. url is just one of many possible mirrors for how to obtain a package matching this hash.

path

String.

When this is provided, the package is found in a directory relative to the build root. In this case the package's hash is irrelevant and therefore not computed. This field and url are mutually exclusive.

lazy

Boolean.

When this is set to true, a package is declared to be lazily fetched. This makes the dependency only get fetched if it is actually used.

paths

List. Required.

Specifies the set of files and directories that are included in this package. Paths are relative to the build root. Use the empty string ("") to refer to the build root itself.

Only files included in the package are used to compute a package's hash.