Xmake Kotlin

Building Kotlin (Native) with Xmake

Xmake's Kotlin support targets Kotlin/Native — the ahead-of-time-compiled flavor, not JVM. For JVM-side projects, use Gradle/Maven directly.

1. Minimal project

xmake create -l kotlin -t console hello
cd hello
xmake run

add_rules("mode.debug", "mode.release")

target("hello")
    set_kind("binary")
    add_files("src/*.kt")

2. Target kinds

target("app")       set_kind("binary")       -- Kotlin/Native executable
target("mylib")     set_kind("static")
target("mydyn")     set_kind("shared")

3. Toolchain

Kotlin/Native must be installed separately — it's not bundled with xmake.

xmake f --toolchain=kotlin-native
xmake f --toolchain=kotlin-native --sdk=/opt/kotlin-native-prebuilt-linux-x86_64-1.9.0

Download the compiler from kotlinlang.org/docs/native-overview.html and point --sdk at it.

4. Targets

Kotlin/Native supports many platforms:

xmake f -p linux   -a x86_64 --toolchain=kotlin-native
xmake f -p macosx  -a arm64  --toolchain=kotlin-native
xmake f -p windows -a x86_64 --toolchain=kotlin-native
xmake f -p iphoneos -a arm64 --toolchain=kotlin-native

5. Interop with C

Kotlin/Native has a cinterop mechanism for binding C libraries. At the xmake level, link native static libs the usual way:

target("app")
    set_kind("binary")
    add_files("src/*.kt")
    add_deps("mycdep")        -- C static library target

cinterop configuration (the .def files) is Kotlin-side — see Kotlin/Native docs.

Pitfalls

• Use case is narrow. Most real-world Kotlin is JVM / Android. If that's what you need, Gradle is the right tool, not xmake.
• Large toolchain download. Kotlin/Native is ~1GB. Cache --sdk globally via xmake g --sdk=....
• Slow first compile. Kotlin/Native's cold start is notoriously slow. Expect longer builds than Rust/Go for equivalent code.

When to branch out

• Target basics → xmake-targets
• Cross-compile → xmake-cross-compilation