anyzig

# anyzig

A universal zig executable that lets you run any version of zig. Since you can only have one `zig` executable in your `PATH`, anyzig removes the limitation that this can only be one version. The version of zig to invoke is pulled from `build.zig.zon`, found by searching the current or any parent directory. anyzig reads the version from the `.minimum_zig_version` field, but will also read `.zig_version` and use that if present.

> `.zig_version` is [proposed](https://github.com/ziglang/zig/issues/23985) as a new property to build.zig.zon, for now, zig allows custom properties in build.zig.zon so anyzig supports it today.

Anytime a new zig version is needed, anyzig downloads and unpacks it into its own data directory (see [Where Compilers Are Installed](#where-compilers-are-installed)) using zig's own package fetching code (what `zig fetch` uses), modified to skip recompressing the package into a cache since anyzig keeps it unpacked.

In addition, you can also specify the version of zig to invoke by including it as the first argument, i.e.

```sh
$ zig 0.13.0 build-exe myproject.zig
$ zig 0.14.0-dev.3028+cdc9d65b0 build-exe mynewerproject.zig
```

Anyzig also adds a few of its own commands, which can be queried and invoked with `zig any ...`.

Set environment variable `ANYZIG_VERBOSE` to any non-empty value to enable verbose log output to stderr.

# Install

Go to https://marler8997.github.io/anyzig and select your OS/Arch to get a download link and/or instructions to install via the command-line.

Otherwise, you can manually find and download/extract the applicable archive from Releases. It will contain a single static binary named `zig`, unless you're on Windows in which case it's 2 files, `zig.exe` and `zig.pdb`. The `anyzls` archives are the same but contain anyzig's `zls` executable instead, they're separate so installing anyzig never replaces your own zls.

# Where Compilers Are Installed

Each version is installed to `APPDATA/zig/VERSION`, where `APPDATA` is:

| OS | APPDATA |
|---|---|
| Linux (and other POSIX) | `$XDG_DATA_HOME/anyzig`, or `~/.local/share/anyzig` if that isn't set |
| macOS | `~/Library/Application Support/anyzig` |
| Windows | `%LOCALAPPDATA%\anyzig` |

`zig any list-installed` lists the installed versions and where they are. A version only appears once it's fully installed, so it's safe to run multiple instances of anyzig at once. When several need the same new version, the first one installs it and the others wait for it.

Compilers from ziglang.org are downloaded from the [community mirrors](https://ziglang.org/download/community-mirrors/), tried in a random order, and each download's minisign signature is verified against the ZSF's public key, including that it signs the requested file. If no mirror can provide it, anyzig falls back to ziglang.org. anyzig fetches the mirror list from ziglang.org each time it downloads a compiler and saves it to `APPDATA/community-mirrors.txt`, which it uses when ziglang.org