Downloads

The current release line is xcc 0.86. One install contains the whole toolchain: the compiler (xcc, which runs every stage itself, from parsing through code generation for all seven targets to assembly and linking), the signing tool (xcc-sign), the 6502 assembler (xcc-as), the simulators (xcc-sim-6502, xcc-sim-68k), the complete standard library, and the Linux (musl) and Windows (mingw) link pools. A single machine can cross-build native binaries for every target with no other toolchain installed.

Platform	Download	Size
macOS (Apple silicon)	xcc-osx-0.86.tar.bz2	10.0 MB
Linux (x86_64)	xcc-linux-0.86.tar.bz2	7.1 MB
Windows (x64)	xcc-win64-0.86.zip	8.4 MB
arm9 sysroot (any host)	xcc-arm9-sysroot-0.86.tar.bz2	830 KB
xcd, the par daemon (macOS)	xcd-osx-0.86.tar.bz2	856 KB
xcd, the par daemon (Linux x86_64)	xcd-linux-0.86.tar.bz2	796 KB
xcd, the par daemon (Windows x64)	xcd-win64-0.86.zip	918 KB
UXKit GTK 4 library (Linux x86_64)	xcc-uxgtk-linux-0.75.tar.bz2	110 KB
UXKit library (macOS arm64, Windows x64, Linux x86_64, web)	xcc-uxkit-0.75.tar.bz2	2.9 MB

Every archive contains the same compiler. Each host build cross-compiles to all targets, so the platform you download for decides only where the compiler runs.

The arm9 sysroot is the one extra piece, and only for -A arm9: that target links against the XTOS loader’s libc.so and reads the C library out of its DWARF, so that one file has to be on the library search path. Every other target is complete in the host archive.

macOS

tar xjf xcc-osx-0.86.tar.bz2
export PATH="$PWD/xcc-osx-0.86/bin:$PATH"
xcc -v

The compiler finds its libraries relative to its own binary, with no flags, environment variables or fixed install path, so you can move the directory anywhere. The binaries are not notarised, so the first run on a fresh macOS install may need a one-time Gatekeeper override (xattr -dr com.apple.quarantine xcc-osx-0.86/).

arm9 sysroot

Needed only for -A arm9. Unpack it anywhere and point -L at it:

tar xjf xcc-arm9-sysroot-0.86.tar.bz2
xcc -A arm9 -L path/to/xcc-arm9-sysroot-0.86 -o prog.so prog.xc

It holds one file: libc.so, newlib 4.4.0.20231231 rebuilt as position-independent code for the Cortex-A9, plus the loader’s directory and malloc-lock support. BSD-style licensed throughout — COPYING.NEWLIB and NOTICE are in the archive — so linking against it places no obligation on your program.

Compiling is what this archive is for. Running an arm9 binary also needs an XTOS kernel to host it, which is not distributed here.

make install also vendors a sysroot into lib/xc/arm9-sysroot/ when it can find one, and then -A arm9 needs no -L at all.

UXKit GTK 4 library

Needed only for a Linux GUI program built with UXKit’s GTK back end. The program is a glibc executable that loads GTK 4, which is how -A x86_64 links by default:

tar xjf xcc-uxgtk-linux-0.75.tar.bz2
xcc -A x86_64 app.xc -L xcc-uxgtk-linux-0.75 -lUXGtk -lgtk-4 -o app

The machine that runs the program needs glibc 2.34 or later and GTK 4; this build is against GTK 4.22, and an older GTK 4 may lack a symbol it uses. Linking from a Mac also needs a copy of the target’s libgtk-4.so on the -L path. UXKit is LGPLv3: the archive carries the library’s source and a script that rebuilds it against any machine’s GTK 4.

UXKit library

UXKit built as a library for macOS (arm64), Windows (x64), Linux (x86_64) and the web, for xcc 0.8. Put its 3p/ beside the versioned install, so that /opt/xcc/3p/uxkit/ sits next to /opt/xcc/0.8/:

tar xjf xcc-uxkit-0.75.tar.bz2
sudo cp -R xcc-uxkit-0.75/3p /opt/xcc/

A program then names UXKit once, with #use <UXKit>, and builds with nothing else: xcc -A arm64 app.xc -o app. On Windows ship libUXKit.dll beside the program; on Linux libUXKit.so and libUXGtk.so (the machine needs GTK 4); on the web libUXKit.wasm, libUXKit.json and the two ux_web_*.js files. UXKit is LGPLv3; the archive carries its source and the script that rebuilds it.

Linux

The archives are compressed with bzip2, which a minimal Linux install may not have. If tar says it cannot run bzip2, install it first (on Ubuntu, sudo apt-get install -y bzip2).

tar xjf xcc-linux-0.86.tar.bz2
export PATH="$PWD/xcc-linux-0.86/bin:$PATH"
xcc -v

The binaries are static (musl), so they run on any x86_64 distribution with no library dependencies.

A par block reaches the GPU on Linux through Vulkan, so running one on the GPU needs the Vulkan loader and a driver. A desktop install usually has both. Set up the GPU covers a minimal install, NVIDIA, and access over ssh.

Windows

Unzip xcc-win64-0.86.zip anywhere and add its bin folder to PATH (or invoke bin\xcc.exe by path). The binaries are self-contained; no runtime installer is needed.

xcd, the par worker daemon

A machine that only lends its GPUs to par programs on the network needs no compiler: each release also ships xcd-osx-<version>.tar.bz2, xcd-linux-<version>.tar.bz2 and xcd-win64-<version>.zip, holding the daemon and the TLS library it talks through, and xcmon, a monitor that draws the daemons and the programs using them in a browser page. Unpack it and run bin/xcd (see Across machines).

First build

// hello.xc — no imports needed: Log is ambient on every target.
void main(void) {
    Log.info("hello from %s", "xcc");
}

xcc -o hello hello.xc      # native binary for this machine, like cc
./hello

The same file cross-compiles to every target by picking an architecture:

xcc -A x86_64 -o hello-linux hello.xc    # Linux ELF against glibc (-static: self-contained, musl)
xcc -A win64  -o hello.exe    hello.xc   # Windows PE
xcc -A wasm32 -o hello        hello.xc   # hello.wasm + a Node/browser loader
xcc -A 6502   -o hello.xex    hello.xc   # banked 6502 executable (run: xcc-sim-6502 -m xt hello.xex)

Next, Compiler usage → CLI reference covers the common flags, and Install covers a system-wide make install.

Older archives are on the Historical Releases page, and the ChangeLog lists what changed per version.