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Cross Compilation

For cross compilation, you have to specify a custom platform to let Bazel know that you are compiling for a different platform than the default host platform.

The example code is setup to cross compile from the following hosts to the the following targets:

  • {linux, x86_64} -> {linux, aarch64}
  • {linux, aarch64} -> {linux, x86_64}
  • {darwin, x86_64} -> {linux, x86_64}
  • {darwin, x86_64} -> {linux, aarch64}
  • {darwin, aarch64 (Apple Silicon)} -> {linux, x86_64}
  • {darwin, aarch64 (Apple Silicon)} -> {linux, aarch64}

You cross-compile by calling the target.

bazel build //:hello_world_x86_64

or

bazel build //:hello_world_aarch64

Notice, the default target //... does not know about the many different target platform and will report an error. Instead, if you want to build for all platforms at once, call the filegroup target:

bazel build //:all

Setup

The setup requires three steps, first declare dependencies and toolchains in your MODULE.bazel, second configure LLVM and Rust for cross compilation, and third the configuration of the cross compilation platforms so you can use it binary targets.

Dependencies Configuration

You add the required rules for cross compilation to your MODULE.bazel as shown below.

# Rules for cross compilation
# https://github.com/bazelbuild/platforms/releases
bazel_dep(name = "platforms", version = "0.0.10")
# https://github.com/bazel-contrib/toolchains_llvm
bazel_dep(name = "toolchains_llvm", version = "1.0.0")

LLVM Configuration

Next, you have to configure the LLVM toolchain because rules_rust still needs a cpp toolchain for cross compilation and you have to add the specific platform triplets to the Rust toolchain. Suppose you want to compile a Rust binary that supports linux on both, X86 and ARM. In that case, you have to setup three LLVM toolchains:

  1. LLVM for the host
  2. LLVM for X86
  3. LLVM for ARM (aarch64)

For the host LLVM, you just specify a LLVM version and then register the toolchain as usual. The target LLVM toolchains, however, have dependencies on system libraries for the target platform. Therefore, it is required to download a so- called sysroot that contains a root file system with all those system libraries for the specific target platform. To do so, please add the following to your MODULE.bazel

# https://github.com/bazelbuild/bazel/blob/master/tools/build_defs/repo/http.bzl
http_archive = use_repo_rule("@bazel_tools//:http.bzl", "http_archive")

# Both, cross compilation and MUSL still need a C/C++ toolchain with sysroot.
_BUILD_FILE_CONTENT = """
filegroup(
  name = "{name}",
  srcs = glob(["*/**"]),
  visibility = ["//visibility:public"],
)
"""

# Download sysroot
# https://commondatastorage.googleapis.com/chrome-linux-sysroot/
http_archive(
    name = "org_chromium_sysroot_linux_x64",
    build_file_content = _BUILD_FILE_CONTENT.format(name = "sysroot"),
    sha256 = "f6b758d880a6df264e2581788741623320d548508f07ffc2ae6a29d0c13d647d",
    urls = ["https://commondatastorage.googleapis.com/chrome-linux-sysroot/toolchain/2e7ada854015a4cc60fc812112d261af44213ed0/debian_bullseye_amd64_sysroot.tar.xz"],
)

http_archive(
    name = "org_chromium_sysroot_linux_aarch64",
    build_file_content = _BUILD_FILE_CONTENT.format(name = "sysroot"),
    sha256 = "902d1a40a5fd8c3764a36c8d377af5945a92e3d264c6252855bda4d7ef81d3df",
    urls = ["https://commondatastorage.googleapis.com/chrome-linux-sysroot/toolchain/41a6c8dec4c4304d6509e30cbaf9218dffb4438e/debian_bullseye_arm64_sysroot.tar.xz"],
)

Here, we declare to new http downloads that retrieve the sysroot for linux_x64 (Intel/AMD) and linux_aarch64 (ARM/Apple Silicon). Note, these are only sysroots, that means you have to configure LLVM next to use these files. As mentioned earlier, three LLVM toolchains needs to be configured and to do that, please add the following to your MODULE.bazel

LLVM_VERSIONS = {
    "": "16.0.0",
}

# Host LLVM toolchain.
llvm.toolchain(
    name = "llvm_toolchain",
    llvm_versions = LLVM_VERSIONS,
)
use_repo(llvm, "llvm_toolchain", "llvm_toolchain_llvm")

# X86 LLVM Toolchain with sysroot.
# https://github.com/bazel-contrib/toolchains_llvm/blob/master/tests/WORKSPACE.bzlmod
llvm.toolchain(
    name = "llvm_toolchain_x86_with_sysroot",
    llvm_versions = LLVM_VERSIONS,
)
llvm.sysroot(
    name = "llvm_toolchain_x86_with_sysroot",
    label = "@org_chromium_sysroot_linux_x64//:sysroot",
    targets = ["linux-x86_64"],
)
use_repo(llvm, "llvm_toolchain_x86_with_sysroot")

#
# ARM (aarch64) LLVM Toolchain with sysroot.
# https://github.com/bazelbuild/rules_rust/blob/main/examples/bzlmod/cross_compile/WORKSPACE.bzlmod
llvm.toolchain(
    name = "llvm_toolchain_aarch64_with_sysroot",
    llvm_versions = LLVM_VERSIONS,
)
llvm.sysroot(
    name = "llvm_toolchain_aarch64_with_sysroot",
    label = "@org_chromium_sysroot_linux_aarch64//:sysroot",
    targets = ["linux-aarch64"],
)
use_repo(llvm, "llvm_toolchain_aarch64_with_sysroot")

# Register all LLVM toolchains
register_toolchains("@llvm_toolchain//:all")

For simplicity, all toolchains are pinned to version LLVM 16 because it is one of the few releases that supports the host (apple-darwin / Ubuntu), and the two targets. For a complete list off all LLVM releases and supported platforms, see this list. It is possible to pin different targets to different LLVM versions; see the documentation for details.

LLVM Troubleshooting

On older linux distributions (Ubuntu 16.04) you may encounter an error that C++ versions before C++ 14 are no longer supported. In this case, just install gcc version 7 or newer. This is rare corner case, but there are gcc backports for older distributions, so please upgrade your compiler if you ever see this error.

On Ubuntu 20.04 you may see an error that a shared library called libtinfo.so.5 is missing. In that case, just install libtinfo via apt-get since its in the official 20.04 repo. To so, open a terminal and type:

apt update && apt install -y libtinfo5

The libtinfo5 library may have different package names on other distributions, but it is a well known issue. See this SO discussion for various solutions.

On MacOX, it is sufficient to have the Apple Clang compiler installed. I don't recommend installing the full Xcode package unless you're developing software for an Apple device. Instead, the Xcode Command Line Tools provide everything you need at a much smaller download size. In most cases, a simple:

xcode-select --install

From a terminal triggers the installation process. For details and alternative options, read this article on freebootcamp.

Windows is not directly supported, but you can use Linux on Windows with WSL to setup an Ubuntu environment within Windows. Please refer to the official WSL documentation for details.

Rust Toolchain Configuration

The Rust toolchain only need to know the additional platform triplets to download the matching toolchains. To do so, add or or modify your MODULE.bazel with the following entry:

# Rust toolchain
RUST_EDITION = "2021"
RUST_VERSION = "1.79.0"

rust = use_extension("@rules_rust//rust:extensions.bzl", "rust")
rust.toolchain(
    edition = RUST_EDITION,
    versions = [RUST_VERSION],
    extra_target_triples = [
        "aarch64-unknown-linux-gnu",
        "x86_64-unknown-linux-gnu",
    ],
)
use_repo(rust, "rust_toolchains")
register_toolchains("@rust_toolchains//:all")

You find the exact platform triplets in the Rust platform support documentation. Next, you have to configure the target platform.

Platform Configuration

Once the dependencies are loaded, create an empty BUILD file to define the cross compilation toolchain targets. As mentioned earlier, it is best practice to put all custom rules, toolchains, and platform into one folder. Suppose you have the empty BUILD file in the following path:

build/platforms/BUILD.bazel

Then you add the following content to the BUILD file:

package(default_visibility = ["//visibility:public"])

platform(
    name = "linux-aarch64",
    constraint_values = [
        "@platforms//os:linux",
        "@platforms//cpu:aarch64",
    ],
)

platform(
    name = "linux-x86_64",
    constraint_values = [
        "@platforms//os:linux",
        "@platforms//cpu:x86_64",
    ],
)

The default visibility at the top of the file means that all targets in this BUILD file will be public by default, which is sensible because cross-compilation targets are usually used across the entire project.

It is important to recognize that the platform rules use the constraint values to map those constraints to the target triplets of the Rust toolchain. If you somehow see errors that says some crate couldn't be found with triple xyz, then one of two things happened.

Either you forgot to add a triple to the Rust toolchain. Unfortunately, the error message doesn't always tell you the correct triple that is missing. However, in that case you have to double check if for each specified platform a corresponding Rust extra_target_triples has been added. If one is missing, add it and the error goes away.

A second source of error is if the platform declaration contains a typo, for example, cpu:arch64 instead of cpu:aarch64. You have to be meticulous in the platform declaration to make everything work smoothly.

With the platform configuration out of the way, you are free to configure your binary targets for the specified platforms.

Usage

Suppose you have a simple hello world that is defined in a single main.rs file. Conventionally, you declare a minimum binary target as shown below.

load("@rules_rust//rust:defs.bzl", "rust_binary")

rust_binary(
    name = "hello_world_host",
    srcs = ["src/main.rs"],
    deps = [],
)

Bazel compiles this target to the same platform as the host. To cross-compile the same source file to a different platform, you simply add one of the platforms previously declared, as shown below.

load("@rules_rust//rust:defs.bzl", "rust_binary")

rust_binary(
    name = "hello_world_x86_64",
    srcs = ["src/main.rs"],
    platform = "//build/platforms:linux-x86_64",
    deps = [],
)

rust_binary(
    name = "hello_world_aarch64",
    srcs = ["src/main.rs"],
    platform = "//build/platforms:linux-aarch64",
    deps = [],
)

You then cross-compile by calling the target.

bazel build //:hello_world_x86_64

or

bazel build //:hello_world_aarch64

You may have to make the target public when see an access error.

However, when you build for multiple targets, it is sensible to group all of them in a filegroup.

filegroup(
    name = "all",
    srcs = [
        ":hello_world_host",
        ":hello_world_x86_64",
        ":hello_world_aarch64",
    ],
    visibility = ["//visibility:public"],
)

Then you build for all platforms by calling the filegroup target:

bazel build //:all