Hosts: macOS, Linux, Windows (ZN-054)
| Host | Status | How it is checked |
|---|---|---|
| macOS arm64 | built and tested every task (T0, T1, T2) | local, and .github/workflows/zinc-next.yml (macos-14) |
| Linux aarch64 and x86_64 | builds warning-free with gcc 13; T0 and T1 pass (the 2 tests that need Node’s tsc skip themselves); T2 run in an ubuntu:24.04 container (see below) | Docker here, the workflow (ubuntu-24.04, ubuntu-24.04-arm) |
| Windows x86_64 | console programs only, cross-built (ZN-714): zinc build --target x86_64-windows prog.ts -o prog.exe from a Mac or Linux; zinc.exe itself cross-links headless (no window, no event loop) and runs under Wine: zinc-windows-port.md | tests/t2/cross_windows.sh (a PE32+ executable links); the CI jobs windows-cross and windows-console run five programs on a Windows runner (written, never run) |
Tests that need a tool the machine lacks exit 77 and the runner prints SKIP name (reason) instead of failing (tests/run): today the oracle tests (tools/oracle --available is
false without Node and the repository’s node_modules).
tests/t2/*.sh read ZINC_TEST_HOME for the directory of the downloaded tools (default build/tc-home), so a container or a CI runner does not share the cache of another OS.
What is checked on Linux
A container (ubuntu:24.04, aarch64) with build-essential cmake python3 curl xz-utils git libpixman-1-0 libsdl2-2.0-0 libslirp0 (the last three are what Espressif’s QEMU links against; zinc now names them when they are missing) builds the engine (the window HAL is left out when SDL3 is not installed: the headless host is what runs) and runs the tiers.
zinc build --target aarch64-linux and zinc run --target esp32 --qemu run from there with the tools downloaded for Linux (zig and Espressif’s QEMU have Linux pins in src/tc/tc.cpp).
Windows: what is missing
The engine uses POSIX in a few places that Windows does not have, so the port is real work and cannot be checked without a Windows machine:
- processes and pipes (
zinc:process,src/host/sys_host.cpp:fork,pipe,waitpid), directory listing (dirent),getpwuid,setenv,realpath,mkdtemp;src/tcshells out tocurl,tar,sh; - the toolchain pins for
x86_64-windows(zig.zip, esptool, QEMU for ESP32) and.exenames; serial ports (COMn) insrc/dev/client.cpp; - the build: MSVC or
clang-cl/zig for the C and C++ sources (zig c++already targets Windows, so the pinned zig can be the compiler), and SDL3 for the window.
Order of work for whoever has the machine: build with zig c++ -target x86_64-windows-gnu from macOS (cross, no Windows needed to compile), then run T0 and T1 on a Windows runner, then the pins and serial ports.
Windows, first step (ZN-714, 2026-10-11)
What works: the AOT output of a console program and the runtime it links (src/rt, src/zbc, mimalloc, libunicode) compile and link for x86_64-windows-gnu with the pinned zig
(mingw-w64, libc++ and winpthreads linked statically): a 1.1 MB .exe that imports only system DLLs (kernel32, the UCRT api-ms-win-crt-*, advapi32, bcrypt, psapi), so Windows 10 and 11
with nothing installed. One defect fixed: mmap for the VM stack (calloc on Windows). Nothing has run on Windows: no machine, no Wine; the CI job is the first run.
A syntax-only pass of the engine’s sources for the same target (zig c++ -target x86_64-windows-gnu -fsyntax-only): src/frontend, src/ir, src/zbc, src/vm, src/aot, src/rt
pass, all 33 files. What stops zinc.exe, by module (POSIX headers and calls, counted with grep):
| Module | What is POSIX-only |
|---|---|
include/zn/log.h | unistd.h (isatty, write): passes with mingw, not with MSVC |
src/tc | dlfcn.h (plugin libraries), popen, sys/wait.h, fnmatch.h (TUF), st_mtim (bundle), and every download or unpack is a shell line (curl, tar, sh, single quotes) |
src/main.cpp, src/cli_core.cpp, src/test_cmd.cpp | dlopen, posix_spawn, fork, popen, termios, sockets (arpa/inet.h, poll), std::system with sh quoting |
src/host | sys_host.cpp (fork, pipe, waitpid, dirent, pwd, utsname, sysctl, mmap), window_module.cpp and splash.cpp (dlopen), assets_host.cpp, permissions.cpp |
src/dev, src/dbg | serial ports (termios, fork), the DevTools and DAP servers (BSD sockets, poll) |
src/qjs, src/prof | pthread, sys/time.h, sys/resource.h (mingw has the first two) |
third_party | libuv and SDL3 are vendored without their Windows sources (libuv/src/win, SDL3/src/video/windows, SDL3/src/dialog/windows); glslang has its WIN32 branch in CMake |
So a program with timers, promises on the event loop, files, sockets or a window (anything aot::usesHost sees) is refused with one line for this target: the host library is the next step.
Result (2026-10-06)
T0, T1 and T2 pass on macOS arm64 (41) and in the Linux container (40, 1 skipped: the oracle needs Node). Found by the Linux run and fixed: the QEMU libraries (clear message), a gcc warning set (stb pragma, a snprintf buffer),
and pinball_physics differing between the interpreter and the AOT build because gcc fuses multiply-adds on aarch64: the engine and the AOT and cross builds now compile with -ffp-contract=off, so every host rounds alike.
The workflow .github/workflows/zinc-next.yml has not run yet (no push from here).