change the default installation directory from ./zig-cache to ./

[andrewrk]

Accepted Proposal

---

If you run zig init-exe and then zig build --help you see this:

Steps:
 install (default) Copy build artifacts to prefix path
 uninstall Remove build artifacts from prefix path
 run Run the app

General Options:
 -h, --help Print this help and exit
 --verbose Print commands before executing them
 --prefix [path] Override default install prefix
 --search-prefix [path] Add a path to look for binaries, libraries, headers
 --color [auto|off|on] Enable or disable colored error messages

Project-Specific Options:
 -Dtarget=[string] The CPU architecture, OS, and ABI to build for
 -Drelease-safe=[bool] Optimizations on and safety on
 -Drelease-fast=[bool] Optimizations on and safety off
 -Drelease-small=[bool] Size optimizations on and safety off

Advanced Options:
...

As you can see, the default step is install. If you pass explicit steps on the command line, those steps are executed instead of the default. Currently, the install step has a default prefix path of zig-cache:

zig/lib/std/build.zig

Lines 194 to 210 in fd18252

	/// This function is intended to be called by std/special/build_runner.zig, not a build.zig file.
	pub fn resolveInstallPrefix(self: *Builder) void {
	if (self.dest_dir) |dest_dir| {
	const install_prefix = self.install_prefix orelse "/usr";
	self.install_path = fs.path.join(self.allocator, &[_][]const u8{ dest_dir, install_prefix }) catch unreachable;
	} else {
	const install_prefix = self.install_prefix orelse blk: {
	const p = self.cache_root;
	self.install_prefix = p;
	break :blk p;
	};
	self.install_path = install_prefix;
	}
	self.lib_dir = fs.path.join(self.allocator, &[_][]const u8{ self.install_path, "lib" }) catch unreachable;
	self.exe_dir = fs.path.join(self.allocator, &[_][]const u8{ self.install_path, "bin" }) catch unreachable;
	self.h_dir = fs.path.join(self.allocator, &[_][]const u8{ self.install_path, "include" }) catch unreachable;
	}

This proposal is to make the default installation directory named after the output mode:

zig/lib/std/builtin.zig

Lines 144 to 149 in fd18252

	pub const Mode = enum {
	Debug,
	ReleaseSafe,
	ReleaseFast,
	ReleaseSmall,
	};

So, if you were to run zig build with the defaults for init-exe, you would get:

Debug/bin/foo.exe

With zig build -Drelease-safe you would get:

ReleaseSafe/bin/foo.exe

However, I further propose that this changes when one takes advantage of setPreferredReleaseMode, in which case

Project-Specific Options:
 -Dtarget=[string] The CPU architecture, OS, and ABI to build for
 -Drelease-safe=[bool] Optimizations on and safety on
 -Drelease-fast=[bool] Optimizations on and safety off
 -Drelease-small=[bool] Size optimizations on and safety off

turns into

Project-Specific Options:
 -Dtarget=[string] The CPU architecture, OS, and ABI to build for
 -Drelease=[bool] Create a release build (ReleaseSafe)

where "ReleaseSafe" is whatever the preferred release mode is. In this case, zig build -Drelease would give you a default installation directory of "Release":

Release/bin/foo.exe

As a reminder, it is always possible to override the install prefix with the --prefix CLI parameter.

---

Comments / suggestions / counter proposals welcome! Nobody will be accused of doing the B-word in this thread!

[g-w1]

Is there any reason why this is not zig-cache/Release/bin/foo.exe or zig-cache/bin/Release/foo.exe, depending on if you can share things between multiple build modes (such as cached comptime values)? I would like this better because all the artifacts are in one place. (Keep in mind, i'm coming from Rust which does this so i'm probably biased). I like this proposal though, because it doesn't overwrite the zig-cache/bin/foo.exe when you change release mode.

[frmdstryr]

Maybe there should just be a .zigrc file that people can set their own defaults since getting people to agree on one way will likely never happen.

I prefer how it currently is as its easier to switch modes without having to update other commands.

[g-w1]

I also think that the default install directory should be in the same directory as build.zig and not in cwd() as I proposed in #7603, which I realized is a duplicate of this.

[andrewrk]

Here is what is accepted:

• Default install directory to be relative to build.zig and not in cwd() (change the default installation directory from ./zig-cache to ./ #7296 (comment))
• The directory will be named debug or release (lower case). All 3 release modes will map to release, whether or not setPreferredReleaseMode is used.