f2e299fb46
Add a ghostty_vt_add_target() CMake function that lets downstream projects build libghostty-vt for a specific Zig target triple. The function encapsulates zig discovery, build-type-to-optimize mapping, the zig build invocation, and output path conventions so consumers do not need to duplicate any of that logic. It creates named IMPORTED targets (e.g. ghostty-vt-static-linux-amd64) that work alongside the existing native ghostty-vt and ghostty-vt-static targets. The build-type mapping is factored into a shared _GHOSTTY_ZIG_OPT_FLAG variable used by both the native build and the new function. The static library targets now propagate c++ as a link dependency on non-Windows platforms, fixing link failures when consumers use static linking with the default SIMD-enabled build. A new example/c-vt-cmake-cross/ demonstrates end-to-end cross- compilation using zig cc as the C compiler, auto-detecting a cross target based on the host OS.
CMake Support for libghostty-vt
The top-level CMakeLists.txt wraps the Zig build system so that CMake
projects can consume libghostty-vt without invoking zig build manually.
Running cmake --build triggers zig build -Demit-lib-vt automatically.
This means downstream projects do require a working Zig compiler on
PATH to build, but don't need to know any Zig-specific details.
Using FetchContent (recommended)
Add the following to your project's CMakeLists.txt:
include(FetchContent)
FetchContent_Declare(ghostty
GIT_REPOSITORY https://github.com/ghostty-org/ghostty.git
GIT_TAG main
)
FetchContent_MakeAvailable(ghostty)
add_executable(myapp main.c)
target_link_libraries(myapp PRIVATE ghostty-vt)
This fetches the Ghostty source, builds libghostty-vt via Zig during your CMake build, and links it into your target. Headers are added to the include path automatically.
Using a local checkout
If you already have the Ghostty source checked out, skip the download by pointing CMake at it:
cmake -B build -DFETCHCONTENT_SOURCE_DIR_GHOSTTY=/path/to/ghostty
cmake --build build
Using find_package (install-based)
Build and install libghostty-vt first:
cd /path/to/ghostty
cmake -B build
cmake --build build
cmake --install build --prefix /usr/local
Then in your project:
find_package(ghostty-vt REQUIRED)
add_executable(myapp main.c)
target_link_libraries(myapp PRIVATE ghostty-vt::ghostty-vt)
Cross-compilation
For cross-compiling to a different Zig target triple, use
ghostty_vt_add_target() after FetchContent_MakeAvailable:
FetchContent_MakeAvailable(ghostty)
ghostty_vt_add_target(NAME linux-amd64 ZIG_TARGET x86_64-linux-gnu)
add_executable(myapp main.c)
target_link_libraries(myapp PRIVATE ghostty-vt-static-linux-amd64)
Using zig cc as the C/CXX compiler
When cross-compiling, the host C compiler can't link binaries for the
target platform. GhosttyZigCompiler.cmake provides
ghostty_zig_compiler() to set up zig cc as the C/CXX compiler for
the cross target. It creates wrapper scripts (shell on Unix, .cmd on
Windows) and configures CMAKE_C_COMPILER, CMAKE_CXX_COMPILER, and
CMAKE_SYSTEM_NAME.
The module is self-contained — copy it into your project (e.g. to
cmake/) and include it directly. It cannot be consumed via
FetchContent because it must run before project(), but
FetchContent_MakeAvailable triggers project() internally:
cmake_minimum_required(VERSION 3.19)
include(cmake/GhosttyZigCompiler.cmake)
ghostty_zig_compiler(ZIG_TARGET x86_64-linux-gnu)
project(myapp LANGUAGES C CXX)
FetchContent_MakeAvailable(ghostty)
ghostty_vt_add_target(NAME linux-amd64 ZIG_TARGET x86_64-linux-gnu)
add_executable(myapp main.c)
target_link_libraries(myapp PRIVATE ghostty-vt-static-linux-amd64)
See example/c-vt-cmake-cross/ for a complete working example.