Find the macOS SDK when only the Command Line Tools are installed - #2614
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iurisilvio wants to merge 1 commit into
Open
Find the macOS SDK when only the Command Line Tools are installed#2614iurisilvio wants to merge 1 commit into
iurisilvio wants to merge 1 commit into
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The SDK path was built as `xcode-select --print-path` plus
`Platforms/MacOSX.platform/Developer/SDKs/`, which only exists inside a full
Xcode. With the Command Line Tools selected the SDKs sit directly under
`SDKs/`, so the link step failed with
warning: unable to open library directory
'/Library/Developer/CommandLineTools/Platforms/MacOSX.platform/Developer/SDKs/MacOSX15.sdk/usr/lib'
after compiling everything.
Look for the pinned SDK in both layouts, and fall back to whichever SDK xcrun
considers active if it is in neither.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
chearon
reviewed
Aug 22, 2026
| break candidate; | ||
| } else std.mem.trim( | ||
| u8, | ||
| b.run(&.{ "xcrun", "--show-sdk-path" }), |
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Seems like it would be super simple to only rely on this command rather than checking predefined directories. Does that work for you?
I did a little reading and it doesn't seem like using the latest SDK breaks compatibility with old macOS. Backward compatibility for macOS binaries is specified by a zig target like "x86_64-macos.10.15-none", which is the equivalent of the clang arg "-mmacos-version-min".
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Building on a Mac without a full Xcode fails at the link step, after compiling every dependency:
Platforms/MacOSX.platform/Developer/SDKs/only exists inside an Xcode installation. With the Command Line Tools selected,xcode-select --print-pathreturns/Library/Developer/CommandLineToolsand the SDKs sit directly underSDKs/.Changes
Look for the pinned SDK in both layouts, and fall back to whatever
xcrun --show-sdk-pathreports if it is in neither — a machine whose Xcode ships a newer SDK still builds rather than failing on a path that does not exist.Verification
macOS 26.0 arm64, Command Line Tools only (no Xcode), zig 0.16.0:
zig buildsucceeds and the full suite passes (305 tests). I do not have a full Xcode here to exercise the first candidate, but it is the path the code builds today and the probe only falls through when it is missing.