# How to cross-compile Clang/LLVM using Clang/LLVM

## Introduction

This document contains information about building LLVM and
Clang on a host machine, targeting another platform.

For more information on how to use Clang as a cross-compiler,
please check <https://clang.llvm.org/docs/CrossCompilation.html>.

This document describes cross-building a compiler in a single stage, using an
existing `clang` install as the host compiler.

:::{note}
These instructions have been tested for targeting 32-bit ARM, AArch64, or
64-bit RISC-V from an x86_64 Linux host. But should be equally applicable to
any other target.
:::

## Setting up a sysroot

You will need a sysroot that contains essential build dependencies compiled
for the target architecture. In this case, we will be using CMake and Ninja on
a Linux host and compiling against a Debian sysroot. Detailed instructions on
producing sysroots are outside of the scope of this documentation, but the
following instructions should work on any Linux distribution with these
pre-requisites:

- `binfmt_misc` configured to execute `qemu-user` for binaries of the
  target architecture. This is done by installing the `qemu-user-static`
  and `binfmt-support` packages on Debian-derived distributions.
- Root access (setups involving `proot` or other tools to avoid this
  requirement may be possible, but aren't described here).
- The `debootstrap` tool. This is available in most distributions.

The following snippet will initialise sysroots for 32-bit Arm, AArch64, and
64-bit RISC-V (just pick the target(s) you are interested in):

```bash
sudo debootstrap --arch=armhf --variant=minbase --include=build-essential,symlinks stable sysroot-deb-armhf-stable
sudo debootstrap --arch=arm64 --variant=minbase --include=build-essential,symlinks stable sysroot-deb-arm64-stable
sudo debootstrap --arch=riscv64 --variant=minbase --include=build-essential,symlinks unstable sysroot-deb-riscv64-unstable
```

The created sysroot may contain absolute symlinks, which will resolve to a
location within the host when accessed during compilation, so we must convert
any absolute symlinks to relative ones:

```bash
sudo chroot sysroot-of-your-choice symlinks -cr .
```

## Configuring CMake and building

For more information on how to configure CMake for LLVM/Clang,
see {doc}`CMake`. Following CMake's recommended practice, we will create a
[toolchain file](https://cmake.org/cmake/help/book/mastering-cmake/chapter/Cross%20Compiling%20With%20CMake.html#toolchain-files).

The following assumes you have a system install of `clang` and `lld` that
will be used for cross compiling and that the listed commands are executed
from within the root of a checkout of the `llvm-project` git repository.

First, set variables in your shell session that will be used throughout the
build instructions:

```bash
SYSROOT=$HOME/sysroot-deb-arm64-stable
TARGET=aarch64-linux-gnu
CFLAGS=""
```

To customise details of the compilation target or choose a different
architecture altogether, change the `SYSROOT`,
`TARGET`, and `CFLAGS` variables to something matching your target. For
example, for 64-bit RISC-V you might set
`SYSROOT=$HOME/sysroot-deb-riscv64-unstable`, `TARGET=riscv64-linux-gnu`
and `CFLAGS="-march=rva20u64"`. Refer to documentation such as your target's
compiler documentation or processor manual for guidance on which `CFLAGS`
settings may be appropriate. The specified `TARGET` should match the triple
used within the sysroot (i.e. `$SYSROOT/usr/lib/$TARGET` should exist).

Then execute the following snippet to create a toolchain file:

```bash
cat - <<EOF > $TARGET-clang.cmake
set(CMAKE_SYSTEM_NAME Linux)
set(CMAKE_SYSROOT "$SYSROOT")
set(CMAKE_C_COMPILER_TARGET $TARGET)
set(CMAKE_CXX_COMPILER_TARGET $TARGET)
set(CMAKE_C_FLAGS_INIT "$CFLAGS")
set(CMAKE_CXX_FLAGS_INIT "$CFLAGS")
set(CMAKE_LINKER_TYPE LLD)
set(CMAKE_C_COMPILER clang)
set(CMAKE_CXX_COMPILER clang++)
set(CMAKE_FIND_ROOT_PATH_MODE_PROGRAM NEVER)
set(CMAKE_FIND_ROOT_PATH_MODE_LIBRARY ONLY)
set(CMAKE_FIND_ROOT_PATH_MODE_INCLUDE ONLY)
set(CMAKE_FIND_ROOT_PATH_MODE_PACKAGE ONLY)
EOF
```

Then configure and build by invoking `cmake`:

```bash
cmake -G Ninja \
  -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=Release \
  -DLLVM_ENABLE_PROJECTS="lld;clang" \
  -DCMAKE_TOOLCHAIN_FILE=$(pwd)/$TARGET-clang.cmake \
  -DLLVM_HOST_TRIPLE=$TARGET \
  -DCMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX=$HOME/clang-$TARGET \
  -S llvm \
  -B build/$TARGET
cmake --build build/$TARGET
```

These options from the toolchain file and `cmake` invocation above are
important:

- `CMAKE_SYSTEM_NAME`: Perhaps surprisingly, explicitly setting this
  variable [causes CMake to set
  CMAKE_CROSSCOMPILING](https://cmake.org/cmake/help/latest/variable/CMAKE_CROSSCOMPILING.html#variable:CMAKE_CROSSCOMPILING).
- `CMAKE_{C,CXX}_COMPILER_TARGET`: This will be used to set the
  `--target` argument to `clang`. The triple should match the triple used
  within the sysroot (i.e. `$SYSROOT/usr/lib/$TARGET` should exist).
- `CMAKE_FIND_ROOT_PATH_MODE_*`: These [control the search behaviour for
  finding libraries, includes or binaries](https://cmake.org/cmake/help/book/mastering-cmake/chapter/Cross%20Compiling%20With%20CMake.html#finding-external-libraries-programs-and-other-files).
  Setting these prevents files for the host being used in the build.
- `LLVM_HOST_TRIPLE`: Specifies the target triple of the system the built
  LLVM will run on, which also implicitly sets other defaults such as
  `LLVM_DEFAULT_TARGET_TRIPLE`. For example, if you are using an x86_64
  host to compile for RISC-V, this will be a RISC-V triple.
- `CMAKE_SYSROOT`: The path to the sysroot containing libraries and headers
  for the target.
- `CMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX`: Setting this avoids installing binaries compiled
  for the target system into system directories for the host system. It is
  not required unless you are going to use the `install` target.

See [LLVM's build documentation](https://llvm.org/docs/CMake.html#frequently-used-cmake-variables) for more
guidance on CMake variables (e.g. `LLVM_TARGETS_TO_BUILD` may be useful if
your cross-compiled binaries only need to support compiling for one target).

## Working around a ninja dependency issue

If you followed the instructions above to create a sysroot, you may run into a
[longstanding problem related to path canonicalization in ninja](https://github.com/ninja-build/ninja/issues/1330). GCC canonicalizes system
headers in dependency files, so when ninja reads them it does not need to do
so. Clang does not do this, and unfortunately ninja does not implement the
canonicalization logic at all, meaning for some system headers with symlinks
in the paths, it can incorrectly compute a non-existing path and consider it
as always modified.

If you are suffering from this issue, you will find any attempt at an
incremental build (including the suggested command to build the `install`
target in the next section) results in recompiling everything. `ninja -C
build/$TARGET -t deps` shows files in `$SYSROOT/include/*` that
do not exist (as the `$SYSROOT/include` folder does not exist) and you can
further confirm these files are causing `ninja` to determine a rebuild is
necessary with `ninja -C build/$TARGET -d deps`.

A workaround is to create a symlink so that the incorrect
`$SYSROOT/include/*` dependencies resolve to files within
`$SYSROOT/usr/include/*`. This works in practice for the simple
cross-compilation use case described here, but is not a general solution.

```bash
sudo ln -s usr/include $SYSROOT/include
```

## Testing the just-built compiler

Confirm the `clang` binary was built for the expected target architecture:

```bash
$ file -L ./build/aarch64-linux-gnu/bin/clang
./build/aarch64-linux-gnu/bin/clang: ELF 64-bit LSB pie executable, ARM aarch64, version 1 (SYSV), dynamically linked, interpreter /lib/ld-linux-aarch64.so.1, for GNU/Linux 3.7.0, BuildID[sha1]=516b8b366a790fcd3563bee4aec0cdfcb90bb1c7, not stripped
```

If you have `qemu-user` installed you can test the produced target binary
either by invoking `qemu-{target}-static` directly:

```bash
$ qemu-aarch64-static -L $SYSROOT ./build/aarch64-linux-gnu/bin/clang --version
clang version 21.0.0git (https://github.com/llvm/llvm-project cedfdc6e889c5c614a953ed1f44bcb45a405f8da)
Target: aarch64-unknown-linux-gnu
Thread model: posix
InstalledDir: /home/asb/llvm-project/build/aarch64-linux-gnu/bin
```

Or, if binfmt_misc is configured (as was necessary for debootstrap):

```bash
$ export QEMU_LD_PREFIX=$SYSROOT; ./build/aarch64-linux-gnu/bin/clang --version
clang version 21.0.0git (https://github.com/llvm/llvm-project cedfdc6e889c5c614a953ed1f44bcb45a405f8da)
Target: aarch64-unknown-linux-gnu
Thread model: posix
InstalledDir: /home/asb/llvm-project/build/aarch64-linux-gnu/bin
```

## Installing and using

:::{note}
Use of the `install` target requires that you have set
`CMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX` otherwise it will attempt to install in
directories under `/` on your host.
:::

If you want to transfer a copy of the built compiler to another machine, you
can first install it to a location on the host via:

```bash
cmake --build build/$TARGET --target=install
```

This will install the LLVM/Clang headers, binaries, libraries, and other files
to paths within `CMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX`. Then tar that directory for transfer
to a device that runs the target architecture natively:

```bash
tar -czvf clang-$TARGET.tar.gz -C $HOME clang-$TARGET
```

The generated toolchain is portable, but requires compatible versions of any
shared libraries it links against. This means using a sysroot that is as
similar to your target operating system as possible is desirable. Other [CMake
variables](https://llvm.org/docs/CMake.html#frequently-used-cmake-variables)
may be helpful, for instance `LLVM_STATIC_LINK_CXX_STDLIB`.