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delete @cImport from the language

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closes #20630
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Andrew Kelley
2026-04-15 17:35:01 -07:00
parent 0dd99c37cc
commit 67a5b6e5e8
47 changed files with 67 additions and 844 deletions
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README.md
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@@ -658,38 +658,31 @@ WebAssembly-related.
### Improving Translate-C
`translate-c` is a feature provided by Zig that converts C source code into
Zig source code. It powers the `zig translate-c` command as well as
[@cImport](https://ziglang.org/documentation/master/#cImport), allowing Zig
code to not only take advantage of function prototypes defined in .h files,
but also `static inline` functions written in C, and even some macros.
`translate-c` is a feature provided by Zig that converts C source code into Zig
source code. It powers the `zig translate-c` command, allowing Zig code to not
only take advantage of function prototypes defined in C header files, but also
`static inline` functions written in C, and even some macros.
This feature used to work by using libclang API to parse and semantically
analyze C/C++ files, and then based on the provided AST and type information,
generating Zig AST, and finally using the mechanisms of `zig fmt` to render the
Zig AST to a file.
However, C translation is in a transitional period right now. It used to be
based on Clang, but is now based on Aro:
However, it is now based on [arocc](https://github.com/Vexu/arocc/), a
third-party C compiler written in Zig. Test coverage, bug reports, and official
implementation live in this repository: [ziglang/translate-c](https://codeberg.org/ziglang/translate-c/)
[Pull Request: update aro and translate-c to latest; delete clang translate-c](https://github.com/ziglang/zig/pull/24497)
Test coverage as well as bug reports have been moved to this repository:
[ziglang/translate-c](https://codeberg.org/ziglang/translate-c/)
In the future, [@cImport will move to the build system](https://github.com/ziglang/zig/issues/20630),
but for now, the translate-c logic is copy-pasted from that project into
[ziglang/zig](https://codeberg.org/ziglang/zig/), powering both `zig translate-c`
and `@cImport`.
This package is currently vendored into the Zig source tree. The TranslateC
build step takes advantage of this to provide the ability to setup C
translation in one's build.zig script.
Please see the readme of the translate-c project for how to contribute. Once an
issue is resolved (and test coverage added) there, the changes can be
immediately backported to the zig compiler.
Once we fix the problems people are facing from this transition from Clang to
Aro, we can move on to enhancing the translate-c package such that `@cImport`
becomes redundant and can therefore be eliminated from the language.
However, in the future, this build step will be removed in favor of explicit
dependency on the translate-c package via build system / package manager. At
that point, Zig will stop vendoring arocc.
### Autodoc