Reference tables

Compiler ids

These are return values of the get_id (Compiler family) and get_argument_syntax (Argument syntax) method in a compiler object.

Value	Compiler family	Argument syntax
arm	ARM compiler
armclang	ARMCLANG compiler
ccrx	Renesas RX Family C/C++ compiler
clang	The Clang compiler	gcc
clang-cl	The Clang compiler (MSVC compatible driver)	msvc
dmd	D lang reference compiler
emscripten	Emscripten WASM compiler
flang	Flang Fortran compiler
g95	The G95 Fortran compiler
gcc	The GNU Compiler Collection	gcc
intel	Intel compiler (Linux and Mac)	gcc
intel-cl	Intel compiler (Windows)	msvc
lcc	Elbrus C/C++/Fortran Compiler
llvm	LLVM-based compiler (Swift, D)
mono	Xamarin C# compiler
msvc	Microsoft Visual Studio	msvc
nagfor	The NAG Fortran compiler
open64	The Open64 Fortran Compiler
pathscale	The Pathscale Fortran compiler
pgi	Portland PGI C/C++/Fortran compilers
rustc	Rust compiler
sun	Sun Fortran compiler
valac	Vala compiler

Script environment variables

Value	Comment
MESONINTROSPECT	Command to run to run the introspection command, may be of the form python /path/to/meson introspect, user is responsible for splitting the path if necessary.
MESON_BUILD_ROOT	Absolute path to the build dir
MESON_DIST_ROOT	Points to the root of the staging directory, only set when running dist scripts
MESON_SOURCE_ROOT	Absolute path to the source dir
MESON_SUBDIR	Current subdirectory, only set for run_command

CPU families

These are returned by the cpu_family method of build_machine, host_machine and target_machine. For cross compilation they are set in the cross file.

Value	Comment
aarch64	64 bit ARM processor
arc	32 bit ARC processor
arm	32 bit ARM processor
e2k	MCST Elbrus processor
ia64	Itanium processor
mips	32 bit MIPS processor
mips64	64 bit MIPS processor
parisc	HP PA-RISC processor
ppc	32 bit PPC processors
ppc64	64 bit PPC processors
riscv32	32 bit RISC-V Open ISA
riscv64	64 bit RISC-V Open ISA
rl78	Renesas RL78
rx	Renesas RX 32 bit MCU
s390x	IBM zSystem s390x
sparc	32 bit SPARC
sparc64	SPARC v9 processor
wasm32	32 bit Webassembly
wasm64	64 bit Webassembly
x86	32 bit x86 processor
x86_64	64 bit x86 processor

Any cpu family not listed in the above list is not guaranteed to remain stable in future releases.

Those porting from autotools should note that meson does not add endianness to the name of the cpu_family. For example, autotools will call little endian PPC64 “ppc64le”, meson will not, you must also check the .endian() value of the machine for this information.

Operating system names

These are provided by the .system() method call.

Value	Comment
cygwin	The Cygwin environment for Windows
darwin	Either OSX or iOS
dragonfly	DragonFly BSD
emscripten	Emscripten's Javascript environment
freebsd	FreeBSD and its derivatives
gnu	GNU Hurd
haiku
linux
netbsd
windows	Any version of Windows

Any string not listed above is not guaranteed to remain stable in future releases.

Language arguments parameter names

These are the parameter names for passing language specific arguments to your build target.

Language	compiler name	linker name
C	c_args	c_link_args
C++	cpp_args	cpp_link_args
C#	cs_args	cs_link_args
D	d_args	d_link_args
Fortran	fortran_args	fortran_link_args
Java	java_args	java_link_args
Objective C	objc_args	objc_link_args
Objective C++	objcpp_args	objcpp_link_args
Rust	rust_args	rust_link_args
Vala	vala_args	vala_link_args

Compiler and linker flag environment variables

These environment variables will be used to modify the compiler and linker flags.

It is recommended that you do not use these. They are provided purely to for backwards compatibility with other build systems. There are many caveats to their use, especially when rebuilding the project. It is highly recommended that you use the command line arguments instead.

Name	Comment
CFLAGS	Flags for the C compiler
CXXFLAGS	Flags for the C++ compiler
OBJCFLAGS	Flags for the Objective C compiler
FFLAGS	Flags for the Fortran compiler
DFLAGS	Flags for the D compiler
VALAFLAGS	Flags for the Vala compiler
RUSTFLAGS	Flags for the Rust compiler
LDFLAGS	The linker flags, used for all languages

Function Attributes

These are the parameters names that are supported using compiler.has_function_attribute() or compiler.get_supported_function_attributes()

GCC __attribute__

These values are supported using the GCC style __attribute__ annotations, which are supported by GCC, Clang, and other compilers.

Name
alias
aligned
alloc_size
always_inline
artificial
cold
const
constructor
constructor_priority
deprecated
destructor
error
externally_visible
fallthrough
flatten
format
format_arg
gnu_inline
hot
ifunc
malloc
noclone
noinline
nonnull
noreturn
nothrow
optimize
packed
pure
returns_nonnull
unused
used
visibility*
visibility:default†
visibility:hidden†
visibility:internal†
visibility:protected†
warning
warn_unused_result
weak
weakreaf

* Changed in 0.52.0 the “visibility” target no longer includes “protected”, which is not present in Apple's clang.

† New in 0.52.0 These split visibility attributes are preferred to the plain “visibility” as they provide narrower checks.

MSVC __declspec

These values are supported using the MSVC style __declspec annotation, which are supported by MSVC, GCC, Clang, and other compilers.

Name
dllexport
dllimport

Dependency lookup methods

These are the values that can be passed to dependency function's method keyword argument.

Name	Comment
auto	Automatic method selection
pkg-config	Use Pkg-Config
cmake	Look up as a CMake module
config-tool	Use a custom dep tool such as cups-config
system	System provided (e.g. OpenGL)
extraframework	A macOS/iOS framework