Building projects with sbt

If you have reached this section you probably have a system that is now able to compile and run Scala Native programs.

Minimal sbt project

The easiest way to make a fresh project is to use our official gitter8 template:

sbt new scala-native/scala-native.g8

This includes:

• project/plugins.sbt to add a plugin dependency:

  addSbtPlugin("org.scala-native" % "sbt-scala-native" % "0.3.7")
  

• project/build.properties to specify the sbt version:

  sbt.version = 0.13.17
  

• build.sbt to enable the plugin and specify Scala version:

  enablePlugins(ScalaNativePlugin)
  
  scalaVersion := "2.11.12"
  

• src/main/scala/Main.scala with minimal application:

  object Main {
    def main(args: Array[String]): Unit =
      println("Hello, world!")
  }
  

Now, simply run sbt run to get everything compiled and have the expected output! Please refer to the FAQ if you encounter any problems.

Scala versions

Scala Native supports following Scala versions for corresponding releases:

Scala Native Version	Scala Versions
0.1.x	2.11.8
0.2.x	2.11.8, 2.11.11
0.3.0-0.3.3	2.11.8, 2.11.11
0.3.4+	2.11.8, 2.11.11, 2.11.12

Sbt settings and tasks

Since	Name	Type	Description
0.1	compile	Analysis	Compile Scala code to NIR
0.1	run	Unit	Compile, link and run the generated binary
0.1	package	File	Similar to standard package with addition of NIR
0.1	publish	Unit	Similar to standard publish with addition of NIR (1)
0.1	nativeLink	File	Link NIR and generate native binary
0.1	nativeClang	File	Path to clang command
0.1	nativeClangPP	File	Path to clang++ command
0.1	nativeCompileOptions	Seq[String]	Extra options passed to clang verbatim during compilation
0.1	nativeLinkingOptions	Seq[String]	Extra options passed to clang verbatim during linking
0.1	nativeMode	String	Either "debug" or "release" (2)
0.2	nativeGC	String	Either "none", "boehm" or "immix" (3)
0.3.3	nativeLinkStubs	Boolean	Whether to link @stub definitions, or to ignore them

1. See Publishing and Cross compilation for details.
2. See Compilation modes for details.
3. See Garbage collectors for details.

Compilation modes

Scala Native supports two distinct linking modes:

1. debug. (default)

   Default mode. Optimized for shortest compilation time. Runs fewer optimizations and is much more suited for iterative development workflow. Similar to clang’s -O0.

2. release.

   Optimized for best runtime performance at expense of longer compilation time. Similar to clang’s -O2 with addition of link-time optimization over the whole application code.

Garbage collectors

1. boehm. (default)

   Conservative generational garbage collector. More information is available at the project’s page.

2. none. (experimental, since 0.2)

   Garbage collector that allocates things without ever freeing them. Useful for short-running command-line applications or applications where garbage collections pauses are not acceptable.

3. immix. (experimental, since 0.3)

   Immix is a mostly-precise mark-region tracing garbage collector. More information about the collector is available as part of the original 0.3.0 announcement.

Publishing

Scala Native supports sbt’s standard workflow for the package distribution:

1. Compile your code.
2. Generate a jar with all of the class files and NIR files.
3. Publish the jar to sonatype, bintray or any other 3rd party hosting service.

Once the jar has been published, it can be resolved through sbt’s standard package resolution system.

Cross compilation

sbt-crossproject is an sbt plugin that lets you cross-compile your projects against all three major platforms in Scala: JVM, JavaScript via Scala.js, and native via Scala Native. It is based on the original cross-project idea from Scala.js and supports the same syntax for existing JVM/JavaScript cross-projects. Please refer to the project’s README for details.

Continue to Language semantics.