4 ms·

Fast compile times in Zig? Last time I tried it was super slow. Has anything changed in recent years?

by petabyt 2y ago

pverghese 2y ago
Compared to Rust its blazingly fast. Compared to Go compilation its slower.
- metaltyphoon 2y ago
  Non it’s not. I known its not a benchmark but just try a zig init and build their hello world. It takes significantly longer
  - sweeter 2y ago
```sh sweet@nadeko ~ $ mkcd test sweet@nadeko ~/test $ zig init info: created build.zig info: created build.zig.zon info: created src/main.zig info: created src/root.zig info: see `zig build --help` for a menu of options sweet@nadeko ~/test $ time zig build zig build 5.08s user 0.58s system 119% cpu 4.745 total # cached sweet@nadeko ~/test $ time zig build zig build 0.01s user 0.03s system 132% cpu 0.026 total # after rewriting the main function to call a function that takes a pointer to another function sweet@nadeko ~/test $ time zig build zig build 0.02s user 0.03s system 136% cpu 0.032 total ```
- baazaa 2y ago
  think this has something to do with zig building part of the std which other languages ship as binaries. incremental compilation will remove this small overhead.
- jedisct1 2y ago
  The first time you run the toolchain for a given target, it compiles stuff that is then stored in a global cache.
rererereferred 2y ago
Their x86 backend seems to be more complete, bypassing LLVM and allowing for fast debug builds.
- zozbot234 2y ago
  Rust has a Cranelift-based backend that you can use for that.
  - bhansconnect 2y ago
    It sadly helps a lot less than you would hope. A true dev backend can be many times faster than llvm to compile code. Crane lift is more like a 1.5x or 2x. Not to mention a lot of time is spent in the rust frontend.
modernerd 2y ago
Last time I tried it was missing both speed and incremental compilation. That still looks to be the case due to no linker support. https://github.com/ziglang/zig/issues/21165 https://github.com/ziglang/zig/issues/21165
sweeter 2y ago
Its honestly pretty dang good now. I can bootstrap Zig from C in about 3-5 minutes, and then use the self-hosted stage3 compiler to compile Zig very quickly (under 1 minute iirc) Once the cache kicks in, its even faster. I guess my overall gauge on this is the impression I get. Zig build times never annoy me and I never think about it... especially compared to clang, gcc and Rust.

Fast compile times in Zig? Last time I tried it was super slow. Has anything changed in recent years?

pverghese 2y ago

Compared to Rust its blazingly fast. Compared to Go compilation its slower.

metaltyphoon 2y ago
Non it’s not. I known its not a benchmark but just try a zig init and build their hello world. It takes significantly longer
- sweeter 2y ago
```sh sweet@nadeko ~ $ mkcd test sweet@nadeko ~/test $ zig init info: created build.zig info: created build.zig.zon info: created src/main.zig info: created src/root.zig info: see `zig build --help` for a menu of options sweet@nadeko ~/test $ time zig build zig build 5.08s user 0.58s system 119% cpu 4.745 total # cached sweet@nadeko ~/test $ time zig build zig build 0.01s user 0.03s system 132% cpu 0.026 total # after rewriting the main function to call a function that takes a pointer to another function sweet@nadeko ~/test $ time zig build zig build 0.02s user 0.03s system 136% cpu 0.032 total ```
- baazaa 2y ago
  think this has something to do with zig building part of the std which other languages ship as binaries. incremental compilation will remove this small overhead.
- jedisct1 2y ago
  The first time you run the toolchain for a given target, it compiles stuff that is then stored in a global cache.

rererereferred 2y ago

Their x86 backend seems to be more complete, bypassing LLVM and allowing for fast debug builds.

zozbot234 2y ago
Rust has a Cranelift-based backend that you can use for that.
- bhansconnect 2y ago
  It sadly helps a lot less than you would hope. A true dev backend can be many times faster than llvm to compile code. Crane lift is more like a 1.5x or 2x. Not to mention a lot of time is spent in the rust frontend.

modernerd 2y ago

Last time I tried it was missing both speed and incremental compilation. That still looks to be the case due to no linker support. https://github.com/ziglang/zig/issues/21165 https://github.com/ziglang/zig/issues/21165

sweeter 2y ago

Its honestly pretty dang good now. I can bootstrap Zig from C in about 3-5 minutes, and then use the self-hosted stage3 compiler to compile Zig very quickly (under 1 minute iirc) Once the cache kicks in, its even faster. I guess my overall gauge on this is the impression I get. Zig build times never annoy me and I never think about it... especially compared to clang, gcc and Rust.