New features (in development)

Array .flatten() method

Arrays now have a .flatten() method, which turns nested arrays into a single flat array. This provides the same effect that Meson often does to arrays internally, such as when passed to most function arguments.

clang-tidy's auto-generated targets correctly select source files

In previous versions, the target would run clang-tidy on every C-like source files (.c, .h, .cpp, .hpp). It did not work correctly because some files, especially headers, are not intended to be consumed as is.

It will now run only on source files participating in targets.

Added Qualcomm's embedded linker, eld

Qualcomm recently open-sourced their embedded linker. https://github.com/qualcomm/eld

Meson users can now use this linker.

Added suffix function to the FS module

The basename and stem were already available. For completeness, expose also the suffix.

Support response files for custom targets

When using the Ninja backend, Meson can now pass arguments to supported tools through response files.

In this release it's enabled only for the Gnome module, fixing calling gnome.mkenums() with a large set of files on Windows (requires Glib 2.59 or higher).

Added license keyword to pkgconfig.generate

When specified, it will add a License: attribute to the generated .pc file.

New experimental option rust_dynamic_std

A new option rust_dynamic_std can be used to link Rust programs so that they use a dynamic library for the Rust libstd.

Right now, staticlib crates cannot be produced if rust_dynamic_std is true, but this may change in the future.

Top-level statement handling in Swift libraries

The Swift compiler normally treats modules with a single source file (and files named main.swift) to run top-level code at program start. This emits a main symbol which is usually undesirable in a library target. Meson now automatically passes the -parse-as-library flag to the Swift compiler in case of single-file library targets to disable this behavior unless the source file is called main.swift.

Swift compiler receives select C family compiler options

Meson now passes select few C family (C/Obj-C) compiler options to the Swift compiler, notably -std=, in order to improve the compatibility of C code as interpreted by the C compiler and the Swift compiler.

NB: This does not include any of the options set in the target's c_flags.

Swift/C++ interoperability is now supported

It is now possible to create Swift executables that can link to C++ or Objective-C++ libraries. Only specifying a bridging header for the Swift target is required.

Swift 5.9 is required to use this feature. Xcode 15 is required if the Xcode backend is used.

lib = static_library('mylib', 'mylib.cpp')
exe = executable('prog', 'main.swift', 'mylib.h', link_with: lib)

Support for MASM in Visual Studio backends

Previously, assembling .masm files with Microsoft's Macro Assembler is only available on the Ninja backend. This now also works on Visual Studio backends.

Note that building ARM64EC code using ml64.exe is currently unimplemented in both of the backends. If you need mixing x64 and Arm64 in your project, please file an issue on GitHub.

Limited support for WrapDB v1

WrapDB v1 has been discontinued for several years, Meson will now print a deprecation warning if a v1 URL is still being used. Wraps can be updated to latest version using meson wrap update command.