Meson looks at the system (finds compilers and dependencies, mostly) and prepares a build directory with a build.ninja file in it (and possibly other files). O

Meson looks at the system (finds compilers and dependencies, mostly) and prepares a build directory with a build.ninja file in it (and possibly other files). Once the build directory is ready you compile with ninja, there is a wrapper "meson compile" but it's kinda pointless because it's longer and doesn't provide any extra functionality.