Using the compiler

Inko's compiler is available through the inko command. For a full list of commands and options, run inko --help.

Compiling executables

Building a standalone executable is done using the inko build command. Without any arguments, this command compiles each source file directly located in the ./src directory to an executable. The name of the executable is derived from the source file. For example, the file ./src/hello.inko results in the executable ./build/debug/hello. You can also compile specific files, for example:

inko build src/hello.inko

By default no optimizations are applied. To enable optimizations, use the --release flag:

inko build --release

When using the --release flag, the executables are placed in the ./build/release directory.

When compiling for the host/native target, build output is placed in ./build directly, but when building for a different architecture the output is scoped to a directory named after that architecture. For example, when compiling for arm64-linux-gnu on an amd64-linux-gnu host, build files are placed in ./build/arm64-linux-gnu.

Compiling and running

The inko run command is used for compiling and running a source file. Unlike the inko build command, this command removes its build output (e.g. object files) upon completion, meaning it has to compile the source file from scratch every time. This makes it useful for running a script of sorts during development:

inko run hello.inko

If your program accepts command line arguments, specify them after the file to run:

inko run hello.inko --foo=bar

Any arguments specified before the file to run are treated as arguments for the run command.