[PATCH v4 2/2] Makefile: support universal macOS builds via RUST_TARGETS

From: Shardul Natu via GitGitGadget <gitgitgadget@gmail.com>
Date: Jul 4, 2026, 18:05 UTC
Message-ID: <88fc2e0bd88756a07467bdaf75f6a344d2e58b41.1783188355.git.gitgitgadget@gmail.com>
In-Reply-To: <pull.2288.v4.git.git.1783188355.gitgitgadget@gmail.com>

From: Shardul Natu <snatu@google.com>

On macOS, Universal Binaries contain native executable code for multiple architectures (such as Intel x86_64 and Apple Silicon arm64) bundled into a single file. This is standard practice for macOS distribution and CI packaging (such as internal distribution packages or tooling like Burrito/Homebrew), allowing a single build artifact to run natively across all Macs without Rosetta emulation or maintaining separate packages.

When building Git C code for multiple architectures on macOS, the Apple toolchain (clang) natively supports universal builds via CFLAGS/LDFLAGS. When "-arch x86_64 -arch arm64" is passed, clang automatically compiles and links universal binaries for all C object files and executables out of the box.

Cargo and rustc, however, do not support multiple "-arch" flags or emitting universal binaries in a single invocation. Instead, Cargo requires invoking each target triple independently (e.g., passing "--target x86_64-apple-darwin" and "--target aarch64-apple-darwin").

To bridge this gap when Rust is enabled:
  1. Allow specifying space-separated target triples in RUST_TARGETS.
  2. Introduce declarative pattern rules (target/%/...) to compile
     each target-specific library slice via Cargo.
  3. On macOS, if multiple targets are specified, use "lipo" (part of
     the mandatory Xcode Command Line Tools) to combine the resulting
     static libraries into target/release/libgitcore.a.
  4. Ensure target directory creation before invoking lipo via
     mkdir_p_parent_template.

Once $(RUST_LIB) is compiled into a universal static archive, the standard C linker seamlessly links it with the C object files to produce universal Git executables.

Signed-off-by: Shardul Natu <snatu@google.com>
---
 Makefile | 39 +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++----
 1 file changed, 35 insertions(+), 4 deletions(-)

diff --git a/Makefile b/Makefile
index 7db38ecce9..ecada0acb4 100644
--- a/Makefile
+++ b/Makefile
@@ -500,6 +500,14 @@ include shared.mak
 #
 # Building Rust code requires Cargo.
 #
+# Define RUST_TARGETS if you want to cross-compile. If left unspecified, it uses
+# the default rust target on the system.
+#
+# On macOS, this supports specifying multiple targets, separated by a space.
+# This will produce a Universal static library using `lipo`.
+#
+# Example: RUST_TARGETS="aarch64-apple-darwin x86_64-apple-darwin"
+#
 # == SHA-1 and SHA-256 defines ==
 #
 # === SHA-1 backend ===
@@ -941,16 +949,17 @@ LIB_FILE = libgit.a
 
 ifndef NO_RUST
 ifdef DEBUG
-RUST_TARGET_DIR = target/debug
+RUST_BUILD_CONFIG = debug
 else
-RUST_TARGET_DIR = target/release
+RUST_BUILD_CONFIG = release
 endif
 
 ifeq ($(uname_S),Windows)
-RUST_LIB = $(RUST_TARGET_DIR)/gitcore.lib
+RUST_LIB_NAME = gitcore.lib
 else
-RUST_LIB = $(RUST_TARGET_DIR)/libgitcore.a
+RUST_LIB_NAME = libgitcore.a
 endif
+RUST_LIB = target/$(RUST_BUILD_CONFIG)/$(RUST_LIB_NAME)
 endif
 
 GITLIBS = common-main.o $(LIB_FILE)
@@ -3022,8 +3031,30 @@ $(LIB_FILE): $(LIB_OBJS)
 	$(QUIET_AR)$(RM) $@ && $(AR) $(ARFLAGS) $@ $^
 
 ifndef NO_RUST
+ifeq ($(RUST_TARGETS),)
 $(RUST_LIB): Cargo.toml $(RUST_SOURCES) $(LIB_FILE)
 	$(QUIET_CARGO)cargo build $(CARGO_ARGS)
+else
+ifneq ($(words $(RUST_TARGETS)),1)
+ifneq ($(uname_S),Darwin)
+$(error Building universal Rust libraries requires macOS (lipo is not available on $(uname_S)))
+endif
+endif
+
+RUST_MEMBER_LIBS = $(foreach target,$(RUST_TARGETS),target/$(target)/$(RUST_BUILD_CONFIG)/$(RUST_LIB_NAME))
+$(RUST_MEMBER_LIBS): target/%/$(RUST_BUILD_CONFIG)/$(RUST_LIB_NAME): Cargo.toml $(RUST_SOURCES) $(LIB_FILE)
+	$(QUIET_CARGO)cargo build $(CARGO_ARGS) --target $*
+
+$(RUST_LIB): $(RUST_MEMBER_LIBS)
+	$(call mkdir_p_parent_template)
+	$(QUIET_GEN)\
+	if test $(words $(RUST_TARGETS)) -gt 1; \
+	then \
+		lipo -create $^ -output $@; \
+	else \
+		cp $< $@; \
+	fi
+endif
 
 .PHONY: rust
 rust: $(RUST_LIB)

-- 
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