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xPack Meson Build v1.5.2-1 released

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

Version 1.5.2-1 is a new release; it follows the upstream release. It also fixes meson wrap and meson-python3 -m pip.

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@1.5.2-1.1 -verbose

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

Compliance​

The xPack Meson Build is based on the official Meson Build sources.

The current version is based on:

  • Meson Build release 1.5.2 from .

Changes​

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

Bug fixes​

  • [#6]: due to a build issue with the openssl configuration, meson wrap failed to download packages; fixed.

Enhancements​

  • [#7]: due to missing source .py files, executing modules like pip failed; source files preserved.

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:

eb48060913f99241f986cbe93ebe2d031b5905cf017c351a67fdd50a657760a5
xpack-meson-build-1.5.2-1-darwin-arm64.tar.gz

3554fbb81b5c9587ab303bc4fca68366202462ab51cb326e9309f51caee7582b
xpack-meson-build-1.5.2-1-darwin-x64.tar.gz

75c6ef48a7196f91bc232c832e4e30b65861b8cd5ef56b30b340db0c93d1d0fc
xpack-meson-build-1.5.2-1-linux-arm.tar.gz

bdb1d18f1f681e2591888a7b1026f47aaa0cdfe3a917bc5b6e403ea5abd4666b
xpack-meson-build-1.5.2-1-linux-arm64.tar.gz

c24f9b2b227781babae0bae03c0439a73b58b5bf5b4e81a2fc17cd76ae9f47d0
xpack-meson-build-1.5.2-1-linux-x64.tar.gz

f585769330e5aa75cbfb1997eb9535a76efe08ecf67ea5a4600c263901b1e0ac
xpack-meson-build-1.5.2-1-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.