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xPack Meson Build v1.4.2-1 released

· 3 min read
Liviu Ionescu (ilg)
Liviu Ionescu (ilg)

Version 1.4.2-1 is a new release; it follows the upstream release.

The xPack Meson Build is a standalone cross-platform binary distribution of Meson Build.

There are separate binaries for Windows (x64), macOS (x64 and arm64) and GNU/Linux (x64, arm64 and arm).

Raspberry Pi

The main targets for the GNU/Linux Arm binaries are the Raspberry Pi class devices (armv7l and aarch64; armv6 is not supported).

Download​

The binary files can be downloaded automatically with xpm or manually from GitHub Releases.

Prerequisites​

  • x64 Windows: Windows 7 with the Universal C Runtime (UCRT), Windows 8, Windows 10, Windows 11
  • x64 macOS: 10.13 or later
  • arm64 macOS: 11.6 or later
  • x64 GNU/Linux: any system with GLIBC 2.27 or higher (like Ubuntu 18 or later, Debian 10 or later, RedHat 8 or later, Fedora 29 or later, etc)
  • arm64/arm GNU/Linux: any system with GLIBC 2.27 or higher (like Raspberry Pi OS, Ubuntu 18 or later, Debian 10 or later, RedHat 8 or later, Fedora 29 or later, etc)

Install​

The easiest way to install this specific version, is by using xpm:

xpm install @xpack-dev-tools/meson-build@1.4.2-1.1 -verbose

Comprehensive instructions for installing xPack Meson Build on different platforms can be found in the Install Guide.

Compliance​

The xPack Meson Build generally follows the official Meson Build releases.

The current version is based on:

  • Meson Build release 1.3.3 from 13 Feb 2024.

Changes​

Compared to the upstream version, there are no functional changes.

Bug fixes​

  • none

Enhancements​

  • none

Known problems​

  • none

Embedded Python​

To simplify dependency management, this release embeds a Python 3.11.8 instance.

The meson executable is a standard ELF/EXE which includes the Python run-time; the main() function prepares the Python environment and then invokes the Meson main:

  PyRun_SimpleString("from mesonbuild import mesonmain\n");
  PyRun_SimpleString("sys.exit(mesonmain.main())\n");

The Python library is located in the standard location:

  • lib/python3.11
  • lib/python3.11/lib-dynload (the platform dependent files)

The Meson files are located in:

  • lib/python3.11/mesonbuild

To speed up execution, all Python files are compiled and are available only as .pyc.

Documentation​

The original documentation is available from:

Build​

The binaries for all supported platforms (Windows, macOS and GNU/Linux) were built using the xPack Build Box (XBB), a set of build environments based on slightly older distributions, that should be compatible with most recent systems.

For the prerequisites and more details on the build procedure, please see the Maintainer Info page.

CI tests​

Before publishing, a set of simple tests were performed on an exhaustive set of platforms. The results are available from:

Checksums​

The SHA-256 hashes for the files are:

367dd619ffce1139076d8ff238135c52d4df58ac747c49cf55fcd68d94f578a9
xpack-meson-build-1.4.2-1-darwin-arm64.tar.gz

bd8565e2084957da96b0b4c992981e3322c659fe4693018dc865f4d0485a67a0
xpack-meson-build-1.4.2-1-darwin-x64.tar.gz

3cab952e374e67f17dbb1e6d15f156085b46868ab0b8f1f2fa4099199ea59598
xpack-meson-build-1.4.2-1-linux-arm.tar.gz

dd25bc879b6e8288b2d4c982c6bfccc3ea4780dfa39a4f21aeb2ece87d470c8c
xpack-meson-build-1.4.2-1-linux-arm64.tar.gz

f34277d4194dc01986387b5d332c294677fb4899e5f23b5b2052955dcd4d94e2
xpack-meson-build-1.4.2-1-linux-x64.tar.gz

3930c1ebe79a8d5807833316618a11739614445d185e397bbf20b1d6d80edb3f
xpack-meson-build-1.4.2-1-win32-x64.zip

Deprecation notices​

GNU/Linux minimum requirements​

The minimum requirement is GLIBC 2.27, available starting with Ubuntu 18, Debian 10 and RedHat 8. Support for RedHat 7 was dropped in 2022.

32-bit support​

Support for 32-bit x86 GNU/Linux and x86 Windows was dropped in 2022.

Pre-deprecation notice for 32-bit Arm GNU/Linux​

Due to the large user base of 32-bit Raspberry Pi systems, support for 32-bit Arm GNU/Linux (armv7l) will be preserved for a little while, but expect it to be dropped by 2025, so it is recommended to consider an upgrade to a RPi 4 or 5 with at least 4 GB (preferably 8 GB) of RAM.

Pre-deprecation notice for Ubuntu 18.04​

Ubuntu 18.04 LTS Bionic Beaver reached the end of the standard five-year maintenance window for Long-Term Support (LTS) release on 31 May 2023.

As a courtesy, the xPack GNU/Linux releases will continue to be based on Ubuntu 18.04 for another year.

From 2025 onwards, the GNU/Linux binaries will be built on Debian 10, (GLIBC 2.28), and are also expected to run on RedHat 8.

Users are urged to update their build and test infrastructure to ensure a smooth transition to the next xPack releases.

Analytics​

Credit to Shields IO for the badges and to Somsubhra/github-release-stats for the individual file counters.