From 8aacce90b4b6bc997f4840c84809876ac3d6251d Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
From: Rawan Khalid <145160003+Rawan10101@users.noreply.github.com>
Date: Wed, 11 Mar 2026 21:05:46 +0200
Subject: [PATCH] fix(cmake): linker flags, doc generation for
 cross-compilation #38215
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Problem:
Cross-compilation issues encountered when building Neovim for WASM.
When cross-compiling, three issues occur:
1. `-Wl,--no-undefined` — not supported by `wasm-ld`
2. `-lutil` — not available in the Emscripten sysroot
3. Doc generation fails because CMake tries to execute `$<TARGET_FILE:nvim_bin>` on the host machine, which fails because the binary is not native to the host. It fails with `/bin/sh: nvim.js: Permission denied`

Solution:
The fix includes skipping `-Wl,--no-undefined` and `-lutil` with `NOT CMAKE_CROSSCOMPILING` and adding `NVIM_HOST_PRG` variable to `runtime/CMakeLists.txt` so when cross-compiling, it uses a host native nvim binary for doc generation instead of using the cross-compiled target.
---
 runtime/CMakeLists.txt  | 7 +++++--
 src/nvim/CMakeLists.txt | 4 ++--
 2 files changed, 7 insertions(+), 4 deletions(-)

diff --git a/runtime/CMakeLists.txt b/runtime/CMakeLists.txt
index fdd846561e..f5f5527d27 100644
--- a/runtime/CMakeLists.txt
+++ b/runtime/CMakeLists.txt
@@ -5,6 +5,9 @@ set(GENERATED_PACKAGE_DIR ${GENERATED_RUNTIME_DIR}/pack/dist/opt)
 set(GENERATED_SYN_VIM ${GENERATED_RUNTIME_DIR}/syntax/vim/generated.vim)
 set(SYN_VIM_GENERATOR ${PROJECT_SOURCE_DIR}/src/gen/gen_vimvim.lua)
 
+if(NOT NVIM_HOST_PRG)
+  set(NVIM_HOST_PRG $<TARGET_FILE:nvim_bin>)
+endif()
 file(MAKE_DIRECTORY ${GENERATED_RUNTIME_DIR}/syntax/vim)
 
 get_directory_property(LUA_GEN DIRECTORY ${PROJECT_SOURCE_DIR}/src/nvim DEFINITION LUA_GEN)
@@ -38,7 +41,7 @@ foreach(PACKAGE ${PACKAGES})
     add_custom_command(OUTPUT "${GENERATED_PACKAGE_DIR}/${PACKNAME}/doc/tags"
       COMMAND ${CMAKE_COMMAND} -E copy_directory
         ${PACKAGE} ${GENERATED_PACKAGE_DIR}/${PACKNAME}
-      COMMAND $<TARGET_FILE:nvim_bin>
+      COMMAND ${NVIM_HOST_PRG}
         -u NONE -i NONE -e --headless -c "helptags doc" -c quit
       DEPENDS
         nvim_bin
@@ -70,7 +73,7 @@ add_custom_command(OUTPUT ${GENERATED_HELP_TAGS}
   COMMAND ${CMAKE_COMMAND} -E remove_directory doc
   COMMAND ${CMAKE_COMMAND} -E copy_directory
     ${PROJECT_SOURCE_DIR}/runtime/doc doc
-  COMMAND $<TARGET_FILE:nvim_bin>
+  COMMAND ${NVIM_HOST_PRG}
     -u NONE -i NONE -e --headless -c "helptags ++t doc" -c quit
   DEPENDS
     nvim_bin
diff --git a/src/nvim/CMakeLists.txt b/src/nvim/CMakeLists.txt
index 0b5f2e0d62..15aa28c6ba 100644
--- a/src/nvim/CMakeLists.txt
+++ b/src/nvim/CMakeLists.txt
@@ -143,7 +143,7 @@ elseif(CMAKE_C_COMPILER_ID MATCHES "Clang")
   endif()
 
   # workaround for clang-11 on macOS, supported on later versions
-  if(NOT APPLE)
+  if(NOT APPLE AND NOT CMAKE_CROSSCOMPILING)
     target_link_libraries(nvim_bin PRIVATE -Wl,--no-undefined)
   endif()
 endif()
@@ -154,7 +154,7 @@ if(UNIX)
   if (CMAKE_SYSTEM_NAME STREQUAL "Haiku")
     target_link_libraries(main_lib INTERFACE bsd)
     target_link_libraries(nvim_bin PRIVATE -lnetwork)
-  elseif (NOT CMAKE_SYSTEM_NAME STREQUAL "SunOS")
+  elseif (NOT CMAKE_SYSTEM_NAME STREQUAL "SunOS" AND NOT CMAKE_CROSSCOMPILING)
     target_link_libraries(main_lib INTERFACE util)
   endif()
 endif()