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You are here: manpages

MESON

Section: User Commands (1)
Updated: March 2026
Index Return to Main Contents

NAME

meson- a high productivity build system

DESCRIPTION

Meson is a build system designed to optimize programmer productivity. It aims to do this by providing simple, ou-o-th-box support for modern software development tools and practices, such as unit tests, coverage reports, Valgrind, Ccache and the like.

The main Meson executable provides many subcommands to access all the functionality.

The setup command

Using Meson is simple and follows the common tw-phase process of most build systems. First you run Meson to configure your build:

meson setup [ options ] [ build directory ] [ source directory ]

Note that the build directory must be different from the source directory. Meson does not support building inside the source directory and attempting to do that leads to an error.

After a successful configuration step you can build the source by running the actual build command in the build directory. The default backend of Meson is Ninja, which can be invoked like this.

ninja [ target ]

You only need to run the Meson command once: when you first configure your build dir. After that you just run the build command. Meson will autodetect changes in your source tree and regenerate all files needed to build the project.

Meson includes many buil-in options that can be used to tweak the configuration of a build directory; projects can also add their own options. To set values for the options, use the -D command line argument like this:

meson setup -Dopt1=value1 -Dopt2=value2 rest of the command line...

options:

--version: print version number
--help: print command line help

The configure command

meson configure provides a way to configure a Meson project from the command line. Its usage is simple:

meson configure [ build directory ] [ options to set ]

If build directory is omitted, the current directory is used instead.

If no parameters are set, meson configure will print the value of all build options to the console.

To set values, use the -D command line argument like this.

meson configure -Dopt1=value1 -Dopt2=value2

The dist command

meson dist generates a release archive.

meson dist [ options ]

options:

-h, --help: show this help message and exit
-C WD: directory to cd into before running
--allo-dirty: Allow even when repository contains uncommitted changes.
--formats FORMATS: Comma separated list of archive types to create. Supports xztar (default), gztar, and zip.
--include-subprojects: Include source code of subprojects that have been used for the build.
--no-tests: Do not build and test generated packages.

The install command

meson install installs the project.

meson install [ options ]

options:

-h, --help: show this help message and exit
-C WD: directory to cd into before running
--n-rebuild: Do not rebuild before installing.
--only-changed: Only overwrite files that are older than the copied file.
--quiet: Do not print every file that was installed.
--destdir DESTDIR: Sets or overrides DESTDIR environment. (Since 0.57.0)
--dry-run, -n: Doesn't actually install, but print logs. (Since 0.57.0)
--skip-subprojects [SKIP_SUBPROJECTS]: Do not install files from given subprojects. (Since 0.58.0)
--tags TAGS: Install only targets having one of the given tags. (Since 0.60.0)
--strip: Strip targets even if strip option was not set during configure. (Since 0.62.0)

The introspect command

Meson introspect is a command designed to make it simple to integrate with other tools, such as IDEs. The output of this command is in JSON.

meson introspect [ build directory ] [ option ]

If build directory is omitted, the current directory is used instead.

options:

--targets: print all top level targets (executables, libraries, etc)
--target-files: print the source files of the given target
--buildsystem-files: print all files that make up the build system (meson.build, meson.options, meson_options.txt etc)
--tests: print all unit tests
--help: print command line help

The init command

meson init creates a new project

meson init [ options ] [ sourcefile... ]

positional arguments:

sourcefile...: source files. default: all recognized files in current directory

options:

-h, --help: show this help message and exit
-C WD: directory to cd into before running
-n NAME, --name NAME: project name. default: name of current directory
-e EXECUTABLE, --executable EXECUTABLE: executable name. default: project name
-d DEPS, --deps DEPS: dependencies, comm-separated
-l {c,cpp,cs,cuda,d,fortran,java,objc,objcpp,rust,vala}, --language {c,cpp,cs,cuda,d,fortran,java,objc,objcpp,rust,vala}: project language. default: autodetected based on source files
-b, --build: build after generation
--builddir BUILDDIR: directory for build
-f, --force: force overwrite of existing files and directories.
--type {executable,library}: project type. default: executable based project
--version VERSION: project version. default: 0.1

The test command

meson test is a helper tool for running test suites of projects using Meson. The default way of running tests is to invoke the default build command:

ninja [ test ]

meson test provides a richer set of tools for invoking tests.

meson test automatically rebuilds the necessary targets to run tests when used with the Ninja backend. Upon build failure, meson test will return an exit code of 125. This return code tells git bisect run to skip the current commit. Thus bisecting using git can be done conveniently like this.

git bisect run meson test-C build_dir

options:

--repeat: run tests as many times as specified
--gdb: run tests under gdb
--list: list all available tests
--wrapper: invoke all tests via the given wrapper (e.g. valgrind)
-C: Change into the given directory before running tests (must be root of build directory).
--suite: run tests in this suite
--no-suite: do not run tests in this suite
--no-stdsplit: do not split stderr and stdout in test logs
--benchmark: run benchmarks instead of tests
--logbase: base of file name to use for writing test logs
--nu-processes: how many parallel processes to use to run tests
--verbose: do not redirect stdout and stderr
-t: a multiplier to use for test timeout values (usually something like 100 for Valgrind)
--setup: use the specified test setup --slice SLICE/NUM_SLICES Split tests into NUM_SLICES slices and execute slice number SLICE. (Since 1.8.0)

The wrap command

Wraptool is a helper utility to manage source dependencies using the online wrapdb service.

meson wrap < command > [ options ]

You should run this command in the top level source directory of your project.

Commands:

list: list all available projects
search: search projects by name
install: install a project with the given name
update: update the specified project to latest available version
info: show available versions of the specified project
status: show installed and available versions of currently used subprojects

The subprojects command

meson subprojects is used to manage subprojects.

meson subprojects [ options ] [ command ]

options:

-h, --help: show this help message and exit

commands:

update: Update all subprojects from wrap files
checkout: Checkout a branch (git only)
download: Ensure subprojects are fetched, even if not in use. Already downloaded subprojects are not modified. This can be used to pr-fetch all subprojects and avoid downloads during configure.
foreach: Execute a command in each subproject directory.
purge: Remove all wra-based subproject artifacts
packagefiles: Manage the packagefiles overlay

The rewrite command

meson rewrite modifies the project definition.

meson rewrite [ options ] [ command ]

options:

-h, --help: show this help message and exit
-s SRCDIR, --sourcedir SRCDIR: Path to source directory.
-V, --verbose: Enable verbose output
-S, --skip-errors: Skip errors instead of aborting

commands:

target (tgt): Modify a target
kwargs: Modify keyword arguments
defaul-options (def): Modify the project default options
command (cmd): Execute a JSON array of commands

The compile command

meson compile builds the project.

meson compile [ options ] [ TARGET... ]

positional arguments:

TARGET: Targets to build. Target has the following format: [PATH_TO_TARGET/]TARGET_NAME.TARGET_SUFFIX[:TARGET_TYPE].

options:

-h, --help: show this help message and exit
--clean: Clean the build directory.
-C WD: directory to cd into before running
-j JOBS, --jobs JOBS: The number of worker jobs to run (if supported). If the value is less than 1 the build program will guess.
-l LOAD_AVERAGE, --loa-average LOAD_AVERAGE: The system load average to try to maintain (if supported).
-v, --verbose: Show more verbose output.
--ninja-args NINJA_ARGS: Arguments to pass to `ninja` (applied only on `ninja` backend).
--vs-args VS_ARGS: Arguments to pass to `msbuild` (applied only on `vs` backend).
--xcode-args XCODE_ARGS: Arguments to pass to `xcodebuild` (applied only on `xcode` backend).

The devenv command

meson devenv runs commands in the developer environment.

meson devenv [ options ] [ command ]

positional arguments:

command: Command to run in developer environment (default: interactive shell)

options:

-h, --help: show this help message and exit
-C BUILDDIR: Path to build directory
--workdir WORKDIR, -w WORKDIR: Directory to cd into before running (default: builddir, Since 1.0.0)
--dump [DUMP]: Only print required environment (Since 0.62.0) Takes an optional file path (Since 1.1.0)
--dum-format {sh,export,vscode}: Format used with-dump (Since 1.1.0)

The env2mfile command

meson env2mfile converts the current environment to a cross or native file.

meson env2mfile [ options ]

options:

-h, --help: show this help message and exit
--debarch DEBARCH: The dpkg architecture to generate.
--gccsuffix GCCSUFFIX: A particular gcc version suffix if necessary.
-o OUTFILE: The output file.
--cross: Generate a cross compilation file.
--native: Generate a native compilation file.
--system SYSTEM: Define system for cross compilation.
--subsystem SUBSYSTEM: Define subsystem for cross compilation.
--kernel KERNEL: Define kernel for cross compilation.
--cpu CPU: Define cpu for cross compilation.
--cp-family CPU_FAMILY: Define cpu family for cross compilation.
--endian {big,little}: Define endianness for cross compilation.

The format command

meson format formats a meson source file.

meson format [ options ] [ sources... ]

positional arguments:

sources...: meson source files

options:

-h,-help: show this help message and exit
-q,-chec-only: exit with 1 if files would be modified by meson format
-i,-inplace: format files i-place
-r,-recursive: recurse subdirs (requires-chec-only or-inplace option)
-c meson.format,-configuration meson.format: read configuration from meson.format
-e,-edito-config: try to read configuration from .editorconfig
-o OUTPUT,-output OUTPUT: output file (implies having exactly one input)

When no command is specified

If you run Meson without a subcommand, it will assume you meant meson setup. However, this syntax is deprecated, and Meson will print a warning message if it is used. You should always use meson setup explicitly, instead of relying on the default.