cmake --workflow --preset release
to configure, build, and package a release
version of Slang.
Please install:
- CMake (3.25 preferred, but 3.22 works[^1])
- A C++ compiler with support for C++17. GCC, Clang and MSVC are supported
- A CMake compatible backend, for example Visual Studio or Ninja
- Python3 (a dependency for building spirv-tools)
Optional dependencies for tests include
- CUDA
- OptiX
- NVAPI
- Aftermath
- X11
Other dependencies are sourced from submodules in the ./external directory.
Clone this repository. Make sure to fetch the submodules also.
git clone https://github.com/shader-slang/slang --recursive
This section assumes cmake 3.25 or greater, if you're on a lower version please see building with an older cmake
For a Ninja based build system (all platforms) run:
cmake --preset default
cmake --build --preset releaseWithDebugInfo # or --preset debug, or --preset release
For Visual Studio run:
cmake --preset vs2022 # or 'vs2019' or `vs2022-dev`
start devenv ./build/slang.sln # to optionally open the project in Visual Studio
cmake --build --preset releaseWithDebugInfo # to build from the CLI, could also use --preset release or --preset debug
There also exists a vs2022-dev
preset which turns on features to aid
debugging.
In order to build WebAssembly build of Slang, Slang needs to be compiled with Emscripten SDK. You can find more information about Emscripten.
You need to clone the EMSDK repo. And you need to install and activate the latest.
git clone https://github.com/emscripten-core/emsdk.git
cd emsdk
For non-Windows platforms
./emsdk install latest
./emsdk activate latest
For Windows
emsdk.bat install latest
emsdk.bat activate latest
After EMSDK is activated, Slang needs to be built in a cross compiling setup:
- build the
generators
target for the build platform - configure the build with
emcmake
for the host platform - build for the host platform.
Note: For more details on cross compiling please refer to the cross-compiling section.
# Build generators.
cmake --workflow --preset generators --fresh
mkdir generators
cmake --install build --prefix generators --component generators
# Configure the build with emcmake.
# emcmake is available only when emsdk_env setup the environment correctly.
pushd ../emsdk
source ./emsdk_env # For Windows, emsdk_env.bat
popd
emcmake cmake -DSLANG_GENERATORS_PATH=generators/bin --preset emscripten -G "Ninja"
# Build slang-wasm.js and slang-wasm.wasm in build.em/Release/bin
cmake --build --preset emscripten --target slang-wasm
Note: If the last build step fails, try running the command that
emcmake
outputs, directly.
Build targets may be installed using cmake:
cmake --build . --target install
This should install SlangConfig.cmake
that should allow find_package
to work.
SlangConfig.cmake defines SLANG_EXECUTABLE
variable that will point to slangc
executable and also define slang::slang
target to be linked to.
For now, slang::slang
is the only exported target defined in the config which can
be linked to.
Example usage
find_package(slang REQUIRED PATHS ${your_cmake_install_prefix_path} NO_DEFAULT_PATH)
# slang_FOUND should be automatically set
target_link_libraries(yourLib PUBLIC
slang::slang
)
build/Debug/bin/slang-test
See the documentation on testing for more information.
Option | Default | Description |
---|---|---|
SLANG_VERSION |
Latest v* tag |
The project version, detected using git if available |
SLANG_EMBED_CORE_MODULE |
TRUE |
Build slang with an embedded version of the core module |
SLANG_EMBED_CORE_MODULE_SOURCE |
TRUE |
Embed the core module source in the binary |
SLANG_ENABLE_ASAN |
FALSE |
Enable ASAN (address sanitizer) |
SLANG_ENABLE_FULL_IR_VALIDATION |
FALSE |
Enable full IR validation (SLOW!) |
SLANG_ENABLE_IR_BREAK_ALLOC |
FALSE |
Enable IR BreakAlloc functionality for debugging. |
SLANG_ENABLE_GFX |
TRUE |
Enable gfx targets |
SLANG_ENABLE_SLANGD |
TRUE |
Enable language server target |
SLANG_ENABLE_SLANGC |
TRUE |
Enable standalone compiler target |
SLANG_ENABLE_SLANGRT |
TRUE |
Enable runtime target |
SLANG_ENABLE_SLANG_GLSLANG |
TRUE |
Enable glslang dependency and slang-glslang wrapper target |
SLANG_ENABLE_TESTS |
TRUE |
Enable test targets, requires SLANG_ENABLE_GFX, SLANG_ENABLE_SLANGD and SLANG_ENABLE_SLANGRT |
SLANG_ENABLE_EXAMPLES |
TRUE |
Enable example targets, requires SLANG_ENABLE_GFX |
SLANG_LIB_TYPE |
SHARED |
How to build the slang library |
SLANG_SLANG_LLVM_FLAVOR |
FETCH_BINARY_IF_POSSIBLE |
How to set up llvm support |
SLANG_SLANG_LLVM_BINARY_URL |
System dependent | URL specifying the location of the slang-llvm prebuilt library |
SLANG_GENERATORS_PATH |
`` | Path to an installed all-generators target for cross compilation |
The following options relate to optional dependencies for additional backends
and running additional tests. Left unchanged they are auto detected, however
they can be set to OFF
to prevent their usage, or set to ON
to make it an
error if they can't be found.
Option | CMake hints | Notes |
---|---|---|
SLANG_ENABLE_CUDA |
CUDAToolkit_ROOT CUDA_PATH |
Enable running tests with the CUDA backend, doesn't affect the targets Slang itself supports |
SLANG_ENABLE_OPTIX |
Optix_ROOT_DIR |
Requires CUDA |
SLANG_ENABLE_NVAPI |
NVAPI_ROOT_DIR |
Only available for builds targeting Windows |
SLANG_ENABLE_AFTERMATH |
Aftermath_ROOT_DIR |
Enable Aftermath in GFX, and add aftermath crash example to project |
SLANG_ENABLE_XLIB |
Option | Default | Description |
---|---|---|
SLANG_ENABLE_DX_ON_VK |
FALSE |
Enable running the DX11 and DX12 tests on non-warning Windows platforms via vkd3d-proton, requires system-provided d3d headers |
SLANG_ENABLE_SLANG_RHI |
TRUE |
Enable building and using slang-rhi for tests |
SLANG_USE_SYSTEM_MINIZ |
FALSE |
Build using system Miniz library instead of the bundled version in ./external |
SLANG_USE_SYSTEM_LZ4 |
FALSE |
Build using system LZ4 library instead of the bundled version in ./external |
SLANG_USE_SYSTEM_VULKAN_HEADERS |
FALSE |
Build using system Vulkan headers instead of the bundled version in ./external |
SLANG_USE_SYSTEM_SPIRV_HEADERS |
FALSE |
Build using system SPIR-V headers instead of the bundled version in ./external |
SLANG_USE_SYSTEM_UNORDERED_DENSE |
FALSE |
Build using system unordered dense instead of the bundled version in ./external |
SLANG_SPIRV_HEADERS_INCLUDE_DIR |
`` | Use this specific path to SPIR-V headers instead of the bundled version in ./external |
There are several options for getting llvm-support:
- Use a prebuilt binary slang-llvm library:
-DSLANG_SLANG_LLVM_FLAVOR=FETCH_BINARY
or-DSLANG_SLANG_LLVM_FLAVOR=FETCH_BINARY_IF_POSSIBLE
(this is the default)- You can set
SLANG_SLANG_LLVM_BINARY_URL
to point to a locallibslang-llvm.so/slang-llvm.dll
or set it to a URL of an zip/archive containing such a file - If this isn't set then the build system tries to download it from the release on github matching the current tag. If such a tag doesn't exist or doesn't have the correct os*arch combination then the latest release will be tried.
- If
SLANG_SLANG_LLVM_BINARY_URL
isFETCH_BINARY_IF_POSSIBLE
then in the case that a prebuilt binary can't be found then the build will proceed as thoughDISABLE
was chosen
- You can set
- Use a system supplied LLVM:
-DSLANG_SLANG_LLVM_FLAVOR=USE_SYSTEM_LLVM
, you must have llvm-13.0 and a matching libclang installed. It's important that either:- You don't end up linking to a dynamic libllvm.so, this will almost
certainly cause multiple versions of LLVM to be loaded at runtime,
leading to errors like
opt: CommandLine Error: Option 'asm-macro-max-nesting-depth' registered more than once!
. Avoid this by compiling LLVM without the dynamic library. - Anything else which may be linked in (for example Mesa, also dynamically loads the same llvm object)
- You don't end up linking to a dynamic libllvm.so, this will almost
certainly cause multiple versions of LLVM to be loaded at runtime,
leading to errors like
- Do not enable LLVM support:
-DSLANG_SLANG_LLVM_FLAVOR=DISABLE
To build only a standalone slang-llvm, you can run:
cmake --workflow --preset slang-llvm
This will generate build/dist-release/slang-slang-llvm.zip
containing the
library. This, of course, uses the system LLVM to build slang-llvm, otherwise
it would just be a convoluted way to download a prebuilt binary.
Slang generates some code at build time, using generators build from this
codebase. Due to this, for cross compilation one must already have built these
generators for the build platform. Build them with the generators
preset, and
pass the install path to the cross building CMake invocation using
SLANG_GENERATORS_PATH
Non-Windows platforms:
# build the generators
cmake --workflow --preset generators --fresh
mkdir build-platform-generators
cmake --install build --config Release --prefix build-platform-generators --component generators
# reconfigure, pointing to these generators
# Here is also where you should set up any cross compiling environment
cmake \
--preset default \
--fresh \
-DSLANG_GENERATORS_PATH=build-platform-generators/bin \
-Dwhatever-other-necessary-options-for-your-cross-build \
# for example \
-DCMAKE_C_COMPILER=my-arch-gcc \
-DCMAKE_CXX_COMPILER=my-arch-g++
# perform the final build
cmake --workflow --preset release
Windows
# build the generators
cmake --workflow --preset generators --fresh
mkdir build-platform-generators
cmake --install build --config Release --prefix build-platform-generators --component generators
# reconfigure, pointing to these generators
# Here is also where you should set up any cross compiling environment
# For example
./vcvarsamd64_arm64.bat
cmake \
--preset default \
--fresh \
-DSLANG_GENERATORS_PATH=build-platform-generators/bin \
-Dwhatever-other-necessary-options-for-your-cross-build
# perform the final build
cmake --workflow --preset release
One option is to build using the ninja generator, which requires providing the
native and cross environments via vcvarsall.bat
vcvarsall.bat
cmake --workflow --preset generators --fresh
mkdir generators
cmake --install build --prefix generators --component generators
vsvarsall.bat x64_arm64
cmake --preset default --fresh -DSLANG_GENERATORS_PATH=generators/bin
cmake --workflow --preset release
Another option is to build using the Visual Studio generator which can find this automatically
cmake --preset vs2022 # or --preset vs2019
cmake --build --preset generators # to build from the CLI
cmake --install build --prefix generators --component generators
rm -rf build # The Visual Studio generator will complain if this is left over from a previous build
cmake --preset vs2022 --fresh -A arm64 -DSLANG_GENERATORS_PATH=generators/bin
cmake --build --preset release
Because older CMake versions don't support all the features we want to use in CMakePresets, you'll have to do without the presets. Something like the following
cmake -B build -G Ninja
cmake --build build -j
[^1] below 3.25, CMake lacks the ability to mark directories as being
system directories (https://cmake.org/cmake/help/latest/prop_tgt/SYSTEM.html#prop_tgt:SYSTEM),
this leads to an inability to suppress warnings originating in the
dependencies in ./external
, so be prepared for some additional warnings.