Meson Integration¶

rninja works seamlessly with Meson, which uses Ninja as its default backend.

Basic Usage¶

Setup and Build¶

# Configure project
meson setup build

# Build with rninja
rninja -C build

Specify rninja Explicitly¶

# Tell Meson to use rninja
meson setup build --backend=ninja
# Meson looks for 'ninja' in PATH - use symlink or alias

Or build directly:

meson setup build
rninja -C build  # Use rninja instead of meson compile

Build Types¶

Debug Build (Default)¶

meson setup build
rninja -C build

Release Build¶

meson setup build --buildtype=release
rninja -C build

Other Build Types¶

# Plain (no optimization, no debug info)
meson setup build --buildtype=plain

# Debug optimized
meson setup build --buildtype=debugoptimized

# Minimum size
meson setup build --buildtype=minsize

Common Workflows¶

Standard Development¶

# First time setup
meson setup build
rninja -C build

# After code changes
rninja -C build

# After meson.build changes
meson setup build --reconfigure  # or just re-run setup
rninja -C build

Clean Build¶

# Clean outputs
rninja -C build -t clean

# Full reconfigure
rm -rf build
meson setup build
rninja -C build

Running Tests¶

# Build and test
rninja -C build
meson test -C build

# Or use ninja target
rninja -C build test

Installing¶

rninja -C build
meson install -C build

Using rninja as Default¶

Symlink Method¶

# Replace ninja with rninja
sudo ln -sf $(which rninja) /usr/local/bin/ninja

# Now Meson automatically uses rninja
meson setup build
meson compile -C build  # Uses rninja

Alias Method¶

# In ~/.bashrc
alias ninja='rninja'

# Meson compile will use rninja
meson compile -C build

Direct Invocation¶

Skip meson compile and call rninja directly:

meson setup build
rninja -C build  # More control over options

Advanced Usage¶

Parallel Builds¶

# All cores
rninja -C build -j0

# Limited parallelism
rninja -C build -j4

Specific Targets¶

# Build specific target
rninja -C build my_library

# Build executable only
rninja -C build my_program

Verbose Output¶

# Show commands
rninja -C build -v

# Meson verbose
meson compile -C build -v

Cross-Compilation¶

# With cross file
meson setup build --cross-file=arm.txt
rninja -C build

Subprojects¶

Meson subprojects work normally:

meson setup build
rninja -C build  # Builds main project and subprojects

Build specific subproject target:

rninja -C build subproject_name:target_name

IDE Integration¶

VS Code¶

.vscode/settings.json:

{
  "mesonbuild.buildFolder": "build",
  "mesonbuild.configureOnOpen": true
}

Build task (.vscode/tasks.json):

{
  "version": "2.0.0",
  "tasks": [
    {
      "label": "Build with rninja",
      "type": "shell",
      "command": "rninja -C build",
      "group": {
        "kind": "build",
        "isDefault": true
      }
    }
  ]
}

GNOME Builder¶

GNOME Builder auto-detects Meson projects and uses the configured ninja. Create symlink to use rninja:

sudo ln -sf $(which rninja) /usr/local/bin/ninja

Compilation Database¶

Meson generates compile_commands.json automatically:

meson setup build
# compile_commands.json is in build/

# Symlink to project root
ln -sf build/compile_commands.json .

Or use rninja:

rninja -C build -t compdb > compile_commands.json

Troubleshooting¶

Meson Uses Original Ninja¶

Ensure rninja is found first:

# Check which ninja is used
which ninja

# If it's not rninja, update PATH or create symlink
export PATH="$HOME/.cargo/bin:$PATH"
# Or
sudo ln -sf $(which rninja) /usr/local/bin/ninja

Build Fails After Meson Update¶

# Full reconfigure
rm -rf build
meson setup build
rninja -C build

Subproject Issues¶

# Ensure subprojects are up to date
meson subprojects update
meson setup build --reconfigure
rninja -C build

Tips¶

Use meson compile for Portability¶

For scripts that need to work without rninja:

meson compile -C build  # Uses whatever ninja is available

For maximum performance, call rninja directly:

rninja -C build  # Full control over flags

Monitor Cache Performance¶

After builds:

rninja -C build -t cache-stats

Meson Introspection¶

# List all targets
meson introspect build --targets

# Get build options
meson configure build

Development Workflow¶

# Watch for changes and rebuild
while inotifywait -r -e modify src/; do
    rninja -C build
done