Quick Start

Supported platforms

Platform State

macOS on Apple silicon (AArch64)

Tier 1: Primary development platform

Linux on AArch64

Tier 2: Builds and runs, validated

Linux on x86-64

Tier 2: Sources compile; a complete build has not been run

Other hosts are not currently supported.

Prerequisites

  • CMake 4.1 or newer.

  • LLVM 22.x.

  • A C++20 host compiler. Clang is required if you want Adinkra, the C++ standard library Aburi uses by default. A GCC build still works, but see Building without Adinkra.

  • Clang’s libc++abi (comes with MacOS)

  • Ninja is optional and recommended.

macOS

brew install cmake llvm ninja

Homebrew installs LLVM under its own prefix rather than on the default search path, which is why the configure line below points CMake at it. libc++abi ships with the system, so there is nothing to install for it.

Debian and Ubuntu

The distribution’s LLVM and CMake are usually too old. Take LLVM from apt.llvm.org:

wget https://apt.llvm.org/llvm.sh
chmod +x llvm.sh
sudo ./llvm.sh 22
sudo apt install clang-22 libc++abi-22-dev ninja-build

Get the source

git clone https://github.com/serjective/aburi aburi
cd aburi

Build

macOS:

cmake -S . -B build -G Ninja \
  -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=Release \
  -DCMAKE_PREFIX_PATH="$(brew --prefix llvm)"
cmake --build build

Linux:

cmake -S . -B build -G Ninja \
  -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=Release \
  -DCMAKE_C_COMPILER=clang-22 \
  -DCMAKE_CXX_COMPILER=clang++-22 \
  -DLLVM_DIR=/usr/lib/llvm-22/lib/cmake/llvm
cmake --build build

This produces build/aburi along with the Adinkra standard library. Use -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=Debug for a debug build (slower to run, faster to compile)

You can run the compiler straight out of the build tree:

./build/aburi -std=c++20 hello.cpp -o hello
./hello

Build options

Option Default Effect

ABURI_BUILD_ADINKRA

ON

Build the Adinkra C++ standard library

ADINKRA_BUILD_SHARED

ON

Also build the shared Adinkra runtime

ABURI_BUILD_PUBLIC_TESTS

OFF

Add the public runtime smoke tests

Install

cmake --install build --prefix /usr/local

This installs the compiler to <prefix>/bin/aburi, its builtin headers to <prefix>/lib/aburi/builtin_headers, and Adinkra’s headers, runtime, and CMake package to <prefix>/include/adinkra and <prefix>/lib. With <prefix>/bin on your PATH, aburi then works from anywhere:

aburi -std=c++20 hello.cpp -o hello

If you need to relocate the compiler/stdlib from its relative locations, set ABURI_ADINKRA_ROOT to the Adinkra location when running.

Check the installation

aburi --version

cat > hello.cpp <<'EOF'
#include <string>
#include <vector>
#include <iostream>

int main() {
    std::vector<std::string> greetings{"mema wo akye", "zdravo", "buna", "pershendetje"};
    for (const std::string& greeting : greetings) {
        std::cout << greeting << '\n';
    }
}
EOF

aburi -std=c++20 hello.cpp -o hello && ./hello

To confirm which C++ standard library you got, inspect the result’s linkage. An Adinkra build depends on libc++abi but not on libc++ or libstdc++:

otool -L hello     # macOS
ldd hello          # Linux

Choosing a standard library

Aburi uses Adinkra by default for C++ on a native macOS or Linux target. -stdlib=libc++ and -stdlib=libstdc++ select the platform libraries instead, and ABURI_STDLIB sets a default for a whole build. Note that GCC libstdc++ is not usable with Aburi yet.

Building without Adinkra

Adinkra needs Clang: its headers use __make_integer_seq, __type_pack_element, __builtin_complex, __builtin_source_location, and the __builtin_coro_* family, which GCC does not provide. Configuring with GCC prints a warning and disables Adinkra rather than failing, meaning you will have a compiler with no C++ stdlib to use with. C compilation should still work.

You can deliberately disable Adinkra:

cmake -S . -B build -DABURI_BUILD_ADINKRA=OFF

Troubleshooting

Undefined __cxa_throw or __cxa_begin_catch when linking C++

libcabi is missing. Install `libcabi-22-dev` on Debian or Ubuntu.

couldn’t find file <vector> (or other C++ standard header)

The C++ standard library was not located. The error lists every root that was searched, including the Adinkra ones, and names the requested and resolved libraries. Set ABURI_ADINKRA_ROOT or pass --adinkra-root=DIR.

C++ silently uses libc++ instead of Adinkra

The compiler could not find an Adinkra tree next to itself and fell back. This usually means the executable was copied out of its build tree or install prefix. Run it from where it was built or installed, or set ABURI_ADINKRA_ROOT.