Xmake Blog

Updates, tips & opinions from the Xmake team.

• Xmake v3.1.2 Released, Incremental Build Improvements and Inno Setup Packaging

  by RukiOctober 17, 2026

  Xmake v3.1.2 improves incremental builds for static libraries, C++ modules, and precompiled headers. It also adds Inno Setup packaging, output-on-failure for tests, selectable HTTP downloaders, and custom pkg-config search directories.

  Addons introduced in v3.1.1 receive fixes for local repositories and installed-version selection, together with eight runnable distribution examples. This release also prevents repository updates from resetting a user's project after a failed clone.

  For a chain such as a -> b -> c -> app, changing an implementation file in a should recompile that file, re-archive a, and relink app. Ordinary b and c archives contain only their own objects, so changing a does not require recreating them.

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• Xmake v3.1.1 Released, Addons Extend Xmake Itself

  by RukiAugust 27, 2026

  The headline of this cycle is addons. v3.1.0 reworked xmake plugin so that plugins could be distributed like packages; addons take that idea to its conclusion: an addon can carry not only a plugin, but rules, toolchains, project templates, lua modules and includes files — a complete developmen...

  Besides that, we added the package.host.install_locally policy, new cross-compilation architectures, a reworked template distribution, and a pkg package manager for BSD.

  An addon extends xmake itself. Where a package provides libraries for your program, an addon provides new abilities for the build tool.

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• Xmake v3.1.0 Released, Plugin Distribution and Binary Asset Transform

  by RukiAugust 8, 2026

  In this release, we reworked the xmake plugin manager. Plugins can now be installed from repositories such as xmake-repo just like packages, and also from git urls and local directories, with a unified listing of built-in, installed and available plugins.

  Additionally, we added check_alignof / configvar_check_alignof type alignment detection, a transform config for the utils.bin2c / utils.bin2obj rules to preprocess embedded binary assets, a new batchcmds:call interface, unified --format=json output for xmake show, multiple target nam...

  Distributing an xmake plugin used to mean asking users to copy the plugin directory into ~/.xmake/plugins/ by hand, or to clone the repository themselves. In this release we rewrote the xmake plugin command: installing, removing and listing plugins now all go through a single entry point, and th...

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• Xmake v3.0.9 Released, Lua 5.5 Upgrade, Zig C Interop and Ascend C

  by RukiMay 19, 2026

  In this release, we upgraded the built-in Lua runtime to 5.5, added a new utils.replace built-in rule, brought C interop to the Zig toolchain, and introduced two new toolchains: Fil-C (a memory-safe C/C++ implementation) and Huawei Ascend C (for NPU programming).

  Additionally, we added a multi-threaded aria2 download backend, support for exporting target and package dependency graphs as JSON or DOT, .csproj generation for C# targets in vsxmake, and many other improvements around custom toolchains, the clang-cl[llvm] toolset, and package archive merging.

  The built-in Lua runtime has been upgraded from 5.4 to 5.5. Lua 5.5 introduces some syntactic and behavioral changes (for example, the for-in control variable is now treated as a const local, and a few legacy library APIs have been removed) that could break existing xmake.lua configurations writte...

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• Xmake v3.0.8 Released, C# Language Support, Custom Templates and WASI Running

  by RukiMarch 24, 2026

  In this release, we have added C# language and dotnet toolchain support, along with C# and C/C++ interop support via P/Invoke. We also introduced custom project templates with xmake create --list for listing templates and remote template distribution.

  Additionally, we added the build.release.strip policy, winos.file_signature function, WASI target running support, nnd debugger support, and the tarxz pack format.

  We have added full C# language support with dotnet toolchain integration, allowing you to build C# projects directly with xmake, including console apps, shared libraries, multi-library dependencies, and NuGet package integration.

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• Xmake v3.0.7 Released, Package Schemes, Wasm in Browser and UTF-8 Module

  by RukiFebruary 7, 2026

  In this release, we have added support for Package Schemes, providing more flexible package installation and fallback mechanisms. We also improved Nix package manager support, optimized Verilator builds, and added support for Qt SDK dynamic mkspec selection.

  Additionally, we now support running Wasm programs in the browser, reading scripts from standard input (stdin), and introduced several new modules and functions, such as cli.iconv, utf8, and os.access.

  The scheme feature is mainly used to provide multiple installation schemes, where each scheme may use different urls, versions, and install logic. Whenever one scheme fails to install, Xmake will automatically try the next installation scheme, thereby improving the installation success rate. This...

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• Xmake v3.0.6 Released, Android Native Apps, Flang, AppImage/dmg Support

  by RukiDecember 17, 2025

  The new version further improves the build support for Android native applications. We can now configure more parameters in the android.native_app rule, including android_sdk_version, android_manifest, android_res, keystore, etc.

  In addition, for scenarios that require custom entry and event loops (such as game engine integration), we support disabling the default android_native_app_glue library by setting native_app_glue = false.

  add_rules("mode.debug", "mode.release")

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• Xmake v3.0.5 released, Multi-row progress, XML module and Swift interop

  by RukiNovember 17, 2025

  In the new version, we have introduced several major features that significantly enhance the development experience. The highlights include multi-row progress output with theme support for better build visibility, a comprehensive XML module for parsing and encoding XML data, **asynchronous O...

  Download: GitHub Releases | Source Repository

  We have improved the progress output to support multi-row refresh, providing a significantly better visual experience during long-running builds. Instead of updating a single progress line, the build output now displays multiple concurrent build tasks with their individual progress, making it easier...

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• Xmake v2.9.1 released, Add native lua modules support

  by RukiApril 22, 2024

  In the new version, we have added native tool chain support for Hongmeng system and implemented a new native Lua module import support. In addition, we have also made a lot of optimizations to the build speed, and the effect is very obvious.

  We have added native toolchain compilation support for the Hongmeng OS platform:

  $ xmake f -p harmony
  

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• Xmake v2.8.7 released, Add cosmocc toolchain support, build-once run-anywhere

  by RukiFebruary 25, 2024

  In the new version, we have added cosmocc tool chain support. Using it, we can compile once and run everywhere. In addition, we also refactored the implementation of C++ Modules and solved many C++ Modules-related problems.

  The cosmocc tool chain is the compilation tool chain provided by the cosmopolitan project. Programs compiled using this tool chain can be compiled once and run anywhere.

  In the new version, we also support this tool chain, which can compile programs under macosx/linux/windows, and can also support automatic downloading of the cosmocc tool chain.

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