ability to link against darwin frameworks (such as CoreFoundation) when cross compiling #1349

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1. andrewrk

   added this to the 0.4.0 milestone on Aug 7, 2018
2. andrewrk

   added

   enhancementSolving this issue will likely involve adding new logic or components to the codebase.Solving this issue will likely involve adding new logic or components to the codebase.

   on Aug 7, 2018
3. andrewrk commented on Aug 7, 2018

   

   andrewrk

   on Aug 7, 2018

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   Here's what we need to accomplish:

   • Ability to link against darwin frameworks when cross-compiling, without any kind of SDK installed.
   • Only link against frameworks that are actually used. This is currently accomplished for dynamic libraries with the extern "libname" syntax.
4. andrewrk

   modified the milestones: 0.4.0, 0.5.0 on Sep 28, 2018
5. andrewrk

   changed the title [-]Darwin: Best way to link against CoreFoundation[/-] [+]ability to link against darwin frameworks (such as CoreFoundation) when cross compiling[/+] on Jul 2, 2019
6. andrewrk

   added

   os-macosmacOSmacOS

   on Jul 2, 2019
7. andrewrk

   modified the milestones: 0.5.0, 0.6.0 on Jul 2, 2019
8. andrewrk

   modified the milestones: 0.6.0, 0.7.0 on Oct 17, 2019
9. andrewrk

   modified the milestones: 0.7.0, 0.8.0 on Apr 15, 2020
10. andrewrk

    modified the milestones: 0.8.0, 0.9.0 on Nov 6, 2020
11. andrewrk

    modified the milestones: 0.9.0, 0.10.0 on May 19, 2021
12. kubkon commented on Feb 2, 2022

    

    kubkon

    on Feb 2, 2022

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    Zig, and zig ld in particular, has the ability to link against frameworks when cross-compiling, however, a copy of the Darwin's sysroot (also called the SDK) is not bundled with Zig installation, therefore it is necessary to provide Zig valid paths to the sysroot and any search directories that may be required.

    A typical invocation may look as follows,

    $ zig cc -target aarch64-macos --sysroot=/home/kubkon/macos-SDK -I/usr/include -L/usr/lib -F/System/Library/Frameworks -framework CoreFoundation -o hello hello.c
    

    👍React with 👍4Reacted by Jerred Shepherd, btwiuse, Alberto Cavalcante and Vitaly Shukela
13. hardillb commented on Dec 8, 2022

    

    hardillb

    on Dec 8, 2022

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    @kubkon I suspect the answer to this will be "Copy it from a Mac" but...

    Any hints on where to get a sysroot bundle for MacOS?

    If the answer is copy it, do you know where I can get a list of what bits I need to grab?
14. kubkon commented on Dec 8, 2022

    

    kubkon

    on Dec 8, 2022

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    @kubkon I suspect the answer to this will be "Copy it from a Mac" but...

    Any hints on where to get a sysroot bundle for MacOS?

    If the answer is copy it, do you know where I can get a list of what bits I need to grab?

    You can get macOS 12 SDK from Hexops for example. If you are looking for an older SDK version, you can get it here. In general tho, if you have a Mac, you just need to grab whatever xcrun --sdk macosx --show-sdk-path. Finally, there is also this website I am aware of but downloading the SDKs may require an active Apple Developer account: xcodereleases.com.

    👍React with 👍2Reacted by Alberto Cavalcante and Pavel Perestoronin

    ❤️React with ❤️2Reacted by Ben Hardill and Evo Stamatov
15. shepherdjerred commented on Feb 28, 2023

    

    shepherdjerred

    on Feb 28, 2023

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    I got zig to cross-compile targeting aarch64 macOS on a Ubuntu Jammy host.

    sdk contains a macOS SDK. Instructions on doing this can be found on the osxcross project. I packaged the SDK, and then unzipped it into sdk

    Dockerfile:

      FROM ubuntu:jammy
      COPY sdk /sdk
      RUN apt update
      RUN apt install -y wget xz-utils
      WORKDIR /workspace
      RUN wget -O zig.tar.xz https://ziglang.org/download/0.10.1/zig-linux-aarch64-0.10.1.tar.xz
      RUN tar -xf zig.tar.xz
      RUN rm zig.tar.xz
      RUN mv zig* zig
      ENV PATH=$PATH:/workspace/zig
      COPY samples samples
      RUN zig cc -target aarch64-macos --sysroot=/sdk -I/sdk/usr/include -L/sdk/usr/lib -F/sdk/System/Library/Frameworks -framework CoreFoundation -o hello-c samples/hello.c

    ❤️React with ❤️6Reacted by Evo Stamatov, jadon, Ethan Li, Lóránt Pintér, Zeke Gabrielse and Yongming Ding
16. mscharley

    added a commit that references this issue on Mar 7, 2026

    fix(deps): replace chrono with time to fix macOS cross-compilation

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    b4c6125
17. donbeave

    added 2 commits that reference this issue on May 20, 2026

    ci(preview): use real macOS SDK for cross-compilation instead of stubs

    ...

    7dccdf8

    ci(preview): use real macOS SDK for cross-compilation (#403)

    ...

    fb0fb7e
18. donbeave

    added a commit that references this issue on Jun 7, 2026

    ci(preview): use real macOS SDK for cross-compilation (#403)

    ...

    a950abe
19. donbeave

    added a commit that references this issue on Jun 24, 2026

    ci(preview): use real macOS SDK for cross-compilation (#403)

    ...

    2e2a392