Cross-Compilation

Build binaries for multiple platforms from a single machine

Anodizer supports three cross-compilation strategies, configurable via the cross field.

Strategies

Config

defaults:
  cross: auto    # auto | zigbuild | cross | cargo

Per-crate override:

crates:
  - name: myapp
    cross: zigbuild    # override default for this crate

How auto-detection works

When cross: auto (the default):

1. If the target is glibc-linked Linux (*-linux-gnu*) and cargo-zigbuild is installed (with a working zig — binary on PATH or the pip ziglang wheel) → use zigbuild, even when the target matches the host triple. zig links against its own bundled libc, so the binary's glibc floor stays hermetic instead of tracking the build machine — a CI runner image upgrade can't silently raise the glibc requirement of your releases. (musl targets are exempt: static libc, no glibc floor.)
2. If the target matches the host triple → use native cargo build
3. If host and target are both Apple, or both Windows → use native cargo build (clang / MSVC cross-compile across their own arches)
4. If cargo-zigbuild is installed → use it
5. If cross is installed → use it
6. Fall back to native cargo build (may fail for cross-platform targets)

To opt out of the linux-gnu zigbuild routing and link against the build host's glibc, set cross: cargo (per-crate or under defaults:).

Run anodizer healthcheck to see which tools are available.

Installing cross-compilation tools

# cargo-zigbuild (recommended for most cases)
cargo install cargo-zigbuild

# cross (for targets needing system libraries)
cargo install cross

Parallelism

Control the number of parallel build jobs with --parallelism / -p:

anodizer release -p 4        # max 4 parallel builds
anodizer release -p 1        # sequential builds

Defaults to the number of logical CPUs.

Single-target builds

For local testing, build only for your host platform:

anodizer release --single-target