Some random build scripts to make building the compiler and sync'ing with latest master branch of https://github.com/ziglang/zig less work.

Do feel free to open issues if you see a better way. These scripts avoid needing to install llvm, cmake, ninja, etc installed on Windows and should be mostly self-contained. These scripts follow Option 1b: Zig build described in Building Zig on Windows.

Using the scripts

There are two versions of the Zig compiler you can switch between using uselatest and usedev: zig-latest for the raw untainted Zig compiler from Ziglang.org and zig-dev for your local build. This is compiled from source locally with any changes you may have made.

First, edit init.cmd to point to the correct ZIGSRC directory where you have your clone of https://github.com/ziglang/zig.

Next, ZIGTOOLS should point to where you want to cache the latest Zig artifact from Ziglang.org and the locally compiled versions, but at the moment the PowerShell scripts do not respect the value. Should be an easy-ish fix if the script directory is an issue.

Update your User (or System) environment variables to include C:\src\zig-compiler-dev-on-windows\zig-latest in the PATH environment variable where C:\src\zig-compiler-dev-on-windows\ is the path you cloned these scripts. See about_Environment_Variables.

Open init.cmd by double-clicking on it. I like to make a shortcut on my desktop: C:\src\zig-compiler-dev-on-windows\init.cmd.

If you are only wanting the latest Zig compiler, zigup is all you really need to stay sync'd. But for compiler development you will want to run zigupall and then zigbuildcompiler to get everything setup the first time.

The init.cmd initializes aliases in the command prompt. The complete list can be viewed by running doskey /macros.

• uselatest: Update PATH to prefer the zig-latest compiler. Run where zig to verify.
• usedev: Update PATH to prefer the zig-dev compiler. Run where zig to verify.
• zigup: Sync's zig-latest to the latest version distributed on Ziglang.org. zigupall is preferred if doing compiler development, but this is useful if you just want to use Zig's latest master branch.
• zigupall: Update both zig-latest and the Windows Zig Compiler Dev Kit to the latest versions.
• zigbuildcompiler: Compiles Zig from ZIGSRC and copies the output to zig-dev.
• zlsup: Sync's with master branch of Zig Language Server and builds it. This does not configure VSCode or other editors.

Zig Language Server (ZLS)

If you intend to use the latest ZLS build with zlsup, you may need to update your editor's path to both zls.exe and zig.exe.

For example, VSCode needs entries similar to the following in %APPDATA%\Code\User\settings.json. This is normally and preferably opened using the Command Palette (Ctrl+Shift+P) then selecting "Preferences: Open User Settings (JSON)". "C:\src\zig-compiler-dev-on-windows is the clone path of this repo, which should be replaced with your clone path. This assumes you have the official Zig Language extension of VSCode installed as recommended by the ZLS Installation Guide.

"zig.path": "C:\\src\\zig-compiler-dev-on-windows\\zig-latest\\zig.exe",
"zig.zls.path": "C:\\src\\zig-compiler-dev-on-windows\\zls\\zig-out\\bin\\zls.exe",
"zig.zls.zigLibPath": "C:\\src\\zig-compiler-dev-on-windows\\zig-latest\\lib"

If you need to restore the above values to the VSCode extension defaults, you can open Extension settings of Zig Language and hover over a setting to reset to make the Gear icon appear, clicking the Gear icon to open a context menu with option to Reset Setting. You can also directly delete the entries in settings.json.

Features

Checks to see if zig-latest is already at the latest version before downloading it again. Same check for the Windows Zig Compiler Dev Kit.

Known Issues

Zig will cache dependencies and build output to speed up compile times. It might be necessary to clear this cache in local appdata and the repo's cache by using the zigcleancompiler macro.

If you pull the latest master branch in ZIGSRC, you might need to run zigupall and zigcleancompiler to resolve compilation errors.

This script has assumptions about how to get the latest Windows Zig Compiler Dev Kit. Expect instability.