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
gcc	The GNU Compiler Collection	gcc
clang	The Clang compiler	gcc
msvc	Microsoft Visual Studio	msvc
intel	Intel compiler	msvc on windows, otherwise gcc
llvm	LLVM-based compiler (Swift, D)
mono	Xamarin C# compiler
dmd	D lang reference compiler
rustc	Rust compiler
valac	Vala compiler
pathscale	The Pathscale Fortran compiler
pgi	The Portland Fortran compiler
sun	Sun Fortran compiler
g95	The G95 Fortran compiler
open64	The Open64 Fortran Compiler
nagfor	The NAG Fortran compiler
lcc	Elbrus C/C++/Fortran Compiler
arm	ARM compiler
armclang	ARMCLANG compiler

Script environment variables

Value	Comment
MESON_SOURCE_ROOT	Absolute path to the source dir
MESON_BUILD_ROOT	Absolute path to the build dir
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_SUBDIR	Current subdirectory, only set for run_command
MESON_DIST_ROOT	Points to the root of the staging directory, only set when running dist scripts

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
x86	32 bit x86 processor
x86_64	64 bit x86 processor
ia64	Itanium processor
arm	32 bit ARM processor
arc	32 bit ARC processor
aarch64	64 bit ARM processor
mips	32 bit MIPS processor
mips64	64 bit MIPS processor
ppc	32 bit PPC processors
ppc64	64 bit PPC processors
e2k	MCST Elbrus processor
parisc	HP PA-RISC processor
riscv32	32 bit RISC-V Open ISA
riscv64	64 bit RISC-V Open ISA
sparc	32 bit SPARC
sparc64	SPARC v9 processor
s390x	IBM zSystem s390x

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

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	Parameter name
C	c_args
C++	cpp_args
C#	cs_args
D	d_args
Fortran	fortran_args
Java	java_args
Objective C	objc_args
Objective C++	objcpp_args
Rust	rust_args
Vala	vala_args

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
warning
warn_unused_result
weak
weakreaf

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