forge-release 0.1.0

Turn-key cross-platform release builds for Rust projects
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
36
37
38
39
40
41
42
43
44
45
46
47
48
49
50
51
52
53
54
55
56
57
58
59
60
61
62
63
64
65
66
67
68
69
70
71
72
73
74
75
76
77
78
79
80
81
82
83
84
85
86
87
88
89
90
91
92
93
94
95
96
97
98
99
100
101
102
103
104
105
106
107
108
109
110
111
112
113
114
115
116
117
118
119
120
121
122
123
124
125
126
127
128
129
130
131
132
133
134
135
136
137
138
139
140
141
142
143
144
145

# cargo-forge

**Turn-key cross-platform release builds for Rust projects.**

Build release binaries for Linux, Windows, FreeBSD, and macOS from a single
machine. No VMs, no containers, no Docker. Uses
[zig](https://ziglang.org) as a universal cross-linker via
[cargo-zigbuild](https://github.com/rust-cross/cargo-zigbuild).

---

## Install

```sh
cargo install cargo-forge
```

## Quick start

```sh
cd my-rust-project
cargo forge init        # creates forge.toml
cargo forge fix         # installs zig, zip, rustup targets
cargo forge build       # builds all platform binaries
```

That's it. Release artifacts land in `release-artifacts/` with a `SHA256SUMS`
file ready to upload.

---

## forge.toml

`cargo forge init` generates this for you. Edit to taste:

```toml
[forge]
binary       = "myapp"
version_from = "Cargo.toml"

# Minimum cargo-forge version required (optional)
# min_version = "1.0.0"

[[forge.target]]
platform = "freebsd-x86_64"

[[forge.target]]
platform = "linux-x86_64"

[[forge.target]]
platform = "windows-x86_64"
archive = "zip"

[forge.deps]
zig = true
zip = true
```

### Supported platforms

| Platform | Triple |
|---|---|
| `freebsd-x86_64` | x86_64-unknown-freebsd |
| `linux-x86_64` | x86_64-unknown-linux-gnu |
| `linux-aarch64` | aarch64-unknown-linux-gnu |
| `windows-x86_64` | x86_64-pc-windows-gnu |
| `macos-x86_64` | x86_64-apple-darwin |
| `macos-aarch64` | aarch64-apple-darwin |

---

## Commands

```sh
cargo forge init              # create forge.toml in current project
cargo forge fix               # install missing dependencies
cargo forge check             # verify all dependencies are installed
cargo forge build             # build all configured platforms
cargo forge build --suffix rc1  # pre-release (e.g. 1.0.0-rc1)
cargo forge clean             # remove cross-compile artifacts
```

---

## How it works

- **Native target** is built with plain `cargo build --release`
- **Cross targets** are built with `cargo zigbuild --release --target <triple>`
- **Zig** acts as a universal linker -- no system cross-toolchains needed
- **Windows archives** use PowerShell `Compress-Archive` (no zip required)
- **SHA256SUMS** is generated automatically

### Host support matrix

| Host | FreeBSD | Linux | Windows | macOS |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| FreeBSD | native | zigbuild | zigbuild | - |
| Linux | zigbuild | native | zigbuild | - |
| Windows | zigbuild | zigbuild | native | - |
| macOS | - | zigbuild | zigbuild | native |

---

## Using forge-core as a library (optional)

If you want version-pinned builds via `Cargo.lock`, add `forge-core` as
a dependency in your project's `xtask`:

```toml
# xtask/Cargo.toml
[dependencies]
forge-core = "0.1"
```

```rust
// xtask/src/main.rs
fn main() {
    forge_core::run();
}
```

Add `.cargo/config.toml` to your project root:

```toml
[alias]
xtask = "run --package xtask --"
```

Then `cargo xtask build` and `cargo forge build` both work, reading the same
`forge.toml`. The xtask version is pinned in `Cargo.lock`; the global
`cargo-forge` binary uses whatever version you have installed.

---

## License

Licensed under either of

- [MIT License](LICENSE-MIT)
- [Apache License, Version 2.0](LICENSE-APACHE)

at your option.

Copyright 2026 [Wavelet Solutions LLC](https://waveletsolutions.com) /
Artisan Technologies R&D division.