Kotlin/Native is an LLVM backend for the Kotlin compiler, runtime implementation, and native code generation facility using the LLVM toolchain.
Kotlin/Native is primarily designed to allow compilation for platforms where virtual machines are not desirable or possible (such as iOS or embedded targets), or where a developer is willing to produce a reasonably-sized self-contained program without the need to ship an additional execution runtime.
The most complete experience with Kotlin/Native can be achieved by using Gradle, IntelliJ IDEA or Android Studio with KMM plugin if you target iOS.
If you are interested in using Kotlin/Native for iOS, then Kotlin Multiplatform Mobile portal might be useful for you.
Command line compiler is also available.
More information can be found in the overviews of Kotlin/Native and Kotlin Multiplatform.
On macOS Kotlin/Native requires Xcode 12.5 or newer.
Prerequisites:
local.properties file with kotlin.native.enabled=true lineThe commands below should be run from either repository root or this (kotlin-native/) directory. For the latter, :kotlin-native: task name prefix can be omitted.
To compile the basic compiler distribution from sources, run following command:
./gradlew :kotlin-native:dist
It will build compiler and stdlib for host target, without platform libraries.
To get platform libraries, add distPlatformLibs task, e.g.
./gradlew :kotlin-native:dist :kotlin-native:distPlatformLibs
To run the full build:
./gradlew :kotlin-native:bundle
This will produce compiler and libraries for all supported targets. The full build can take about an hour on a Macbook Pro.
After any of the commands above, ./dist will contain Kotlin/Native distribution. You can use it like a distribution of command-line compiler.
Or configure Gradle to use it -- just add the following line to gradle.properties in your Gradle project:
kotlin.native.home=/path/to/kotlin/kotlin-native/dist
To compile your programs with command-line compiler, use:
./dist/bin/kotlinc-native hello.kt -o hello
For an optimized compilation, use -opt:
./dist/bin/kotlinc-native hello.kt -o hello -opt
To import a C or Objective-C library, use ./dist/bin/cinterop tool. See the documentation for more details.
For tests, use ./gradlew :native:native.tests:codegenBoxTest and ./gradlew :kotlin-native:backend.native:tests:run.
For more details see Testing.