How to use xPack Ninja Build

This page is intended for those who plan to integrate xPack Ninja Build into their workflows.

Versioning

The version string utilised by the upstream Ninja Build project is a three-number string such as 1.13.1; to this string the xPack distribution adds a fourth number, but since SemVer allows only three numbers, all additional ones can be added only as pre-release strings, separated by a dash, such as 1.13.1-1. When published as an npm package, the version receives a fifth number, such as 1.13.1-1.1.

Since adherence of third-party packages to SemVer is not guaranteed, it is recommended to avoid referencing the xPack Ninja Build dependency via SemVer expressions such as ^1.13.1-1 or ~1.13.1-1, and prefer exact matches, such as 1.13.1-1.1.

Shared libraries

On all platforms the binary xpm packages are standalone, and require only the standard runtime to be present on the host.

All dependencies that are built as shared libraries are copied locally to the libexec folder (or to the same folder as the executable for Windows).

DT_RPATH and LD_LIBRARY_PATH

On GNU/Linux the binaries are adjusted to utilise a relative path:

$ readelf -d library.so | grep rpath
 0x000000000000001d (RPATH)            Library rpath: [$ORIGIN]

In the GNU ld.so search strategy, the DT_RPATH has the highest priority, higher than LD_LIBRARY_PATH, so if the latter is set in the environment, it should not interfere with the xPack binaries.

Please note that previous versions, up to mid-2020, utilised DT_RUNPATH, which has a priority lower than LD_LIBRARY_PATH; setting LD_LIBRARY_PATH in the environment overrode DT_RUNPATH, resulting in failures to load the libraries.

@rpath and @loader_path

Similarly, on macOS, the binaries are adjusted with install_name_tool (part of CLT) to utilise a relative path.

Using ninja-build in testing

TODO