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Filename Latest commit message Latest commit date
Nexoniarz 837ad45177 The compiler carries its runtime and std inside itself; host module for the system it runs on 
src/embedded.fch (made by tools/pack.fch, checked by tests/run.sh) holds runtime/finch_rt.c and std/; when they aren't
beside the binary they're written to the cache folder once. All the sh/cmd specifics of the driver (quoting, temp dir,
mkdir, rm, mv, null device, path separator, cache dir, binary stdio) moved into host.fch / host_windows.fch.

Co-Authored-By: Claude Sonnet 5.5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
Claude-Session: https://claude.ai/code/session_015f73FesGZGYPkmDvUcj6QX
2026-10-25 22:32:02 +01:00
..
build.sh The compiler carries its runtime and std inside itself; host module for the system it runs on 2026-10-25 22:32:02 +01:00
install.sh Install, CI, seeds and docs for the compiler written in Finch 2026-10-25 21:53:50 +01:00
linux-aarch64.ll Install, CI, seeds and docs for the compiler written in Finch 2026-10-25 21:53:50 +01:00
linux-x86_64.ll Install, CI, seeds and docs for the compiler written in Finch 2026-10-25 21:53:50 +01:00
pack.sh The compiler carries its runtime and std inside itself; host module for the system it runs on 2026-10-25 22:32:02 +01:00
README.md Install, CI, seeds and docs for the compiler written in Finch 2026-10-25 21:53:50 +01:00

README.md

The seed

Finch's compiler is written in Finch. To build it you need something that already runs Finch: the seed, which is the compiler's own LLVM IR, one file per system:

File System Checked
linux-x86_64.ll Linux x86-64 built and tested here and in CI
linux-aarch64.ll Linux ARM64 made with the ARM64 cross compiler; CI builds and tests it on an ARM64 runner

bootstrap/build.sh compiles the seed with clang (and the runtime, and libclang) into build/finch0; finch0 builds src/ into finch1; finch1 builds src/ again into build/finch; the two must make the same IR, or the script stops.

Why one per system

The seed includes how this system's C compiler passes structs by value, because the compiler calls libclang with CXCursor, CXType and CXString (the calling convention is different on x86-64, on ARM64 and on Windows). So a seed made for one system doesn't run on another, and a seed needs the target system's C headers to be made.

When to make a new one

When the compiler's own source starts to use a feature that the committed seed doesn't have, build.sh fails at the first step. Make the seed from a working compiler:

bootstrap/build.sh seed            # writes bootstrap/<this system>.ll

For another system, from a machine that has that system's headers and a cross compiler (what tests/cross.sh uses):

FINCH_CC=aarch64-linux-gnu-gcc build/finch ir src/main.fch --target arm64 > bootstrap/linux-aarch64.ll

macOS and Windows

There is no seed for them yet: it needs Apple's or Microsoft's headers, which can't be had on Linux. Until there is one, programs for macOS and Windows are built from Linux with --target macos|windows, and the compiler's older C++ version (branch before-bootstrap) is the way to get a compiler that runs there.