Trick the meson build system into thinking zig rc is rc.exe

[squeek502]

(would appreciate this being included in 0.14.1)

---

When determining the type of RC compiler, meson passes /? or --version and then reads from stdout looking for particular string(s) anywhere in the output.

So, by adding the string "Microsoft Resource Compiler" to the /? output, meson will recognize zig rc as rc.exe and give it the correct options, which works fine since zig rc is drop-in CLI compatible with rc.exe.

This allows using zig rc with meson for (cross-)compiling, by either:

• Setting WINDRES="zig rc" or putting windres = ['zig', 'rc'] in the cross-file
  • This will work like rc.exe, so it will output .res files. This will only link successfully if you are using a linker that can do .res -> .obj conversion (so something like zig cc, MSVC, lld)
• Setting WINDRES="zig rc /:output-format coff" or putting windres = ['zig', 'rc', '/:output-format', 'coff'] in the cross-file
  • This will make meson pass flags as if it were rc.exe, but it will cause the resulting .res file to actually be a COFF object file, meaning it will work with any linker that handles COFF object files

Example cross file that uses zig cc (which can link .res files, so /:output-format coff is not necessary) and zig rc:

[binaries]
c = ['zig', 'cc', '--target=x86_64-windows-gnu']
windres = ['zig', 'rc']

[target_machine]
system = 'windows'
cpu_family = 'x86_64'
cpu = 'x86_64'
endian = 'little'

---

Using the test project here with the example cross file above to cross-compile from Linux:

$ meson setup builddir --cross-file zig-rc.txt
...
Windows resource compiler: Drop-in compatible with the Microsoft Resource Compiler.
...

$ cd builddir
$ meson compile
$ file check
check: PE32+ executable (console) x86-64, for MS Windows
$ wine ./check
hello world

(the hello world string comes from a resource)

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Relevant links:

• zig rc: Add COFF object file creation for CMake cross-compilation use case #22813 (getting this same sort of thing to work for CMake)
• /? outputs to stderr instead of stdout squeek502/resinator#17 (upstream resinator issue about this)