hare-build(1)

💖 NAME 💖

hare build — compile a Hare program or module. And yes, bestie, the manual page you're reading is hare-build(1) — welcome to the build chat. 🫶

✨ SYNOPSIS ✨

hare build [-hFqv]
[-a arch]
[-D ident[:type]=value]
[-j jobs]
[-L libdir]
[-l libname]
[-N namespace]
[-o path]
[-R]
[-T tagset]
[-t type]
[path]

🌸 DESCRIPTION 🌸

Okay so hare build compiles a Hare program or module. The path argument is a path to a Hare source file or to a directory which contains a Hare module (see hare-module(5)). If no path is given, the Hare module contained in the current working directory is built. No cap, that's the whole vibe.

💅 OPTIONS 💅

• -h — Print the help text.
• -F — Build for freestanding (non-hosted) environment. See FREESTANDING ENVIRONMENT.
• -q — Outside of errors, don't write anything to stdout while building.
• -v — Enable verbose logging. Specify twice to increase verbosity.
• -a arch — Set the desired architecture for cross-compiling. See ARCHITECTURES for supported architecture names.
• -D ident[:type]=value — Define a constant in the type system. ident is parsed as a Hare identifier (e.g. "foo::bar::baz"), type as a Hare type (e.g. "str" or "struct { x: int, y: int }"), and value as a Hare expression (e.g. "42"). Take care to address any necessary escaping to avoid conflicts between your shell syntax and Hare syntax. Shell quoting vs Hare syntax is a whole boss fight, iykyk.
• -j jobs — Set the maximum number of jobs to execute in parallel. The default is the number of processors available on the host.
• -L libdir — Add a directory to the linker library search path.
• -l libname — Link with the named system library. The name is passed directly to the linker. Linking with any library will also link with libc(7) and add the +libc tag to the default build tags (see BUILD TAGS in hare-module(5)).
• -N namespace — Override the namespace for the module.
• -o path — Set the output file to the given path. Setting the path to - causes output to be written to stdout.
• -R — Build in release mode. In debug mode (the default), the debug:: module is imported as a dependency, which automatically installs a number of runtime debugging features in your executable. See this module's documentation for details on these features.
• -T tagset — Set or unset build tags. See BUILD TAGS in hare-module(5).
• -t type — Set the build type. type should be one of s, o, or bin, for assembly, compiled object, or compiled binary, respectively. The default build type is compiled binary.

🦋 ARCHITECTURES 🦋

The -a flag is used for cross-compilation to a target architecture different from the host architecture. The following architectures are currently supported:

• aarch64
• riscv64
• x86_64

The system usually provides reasonable defaults for the AR, AS, LD, and CC tools based on the desired target. However, you may wish to set these variables yourself to control the cross toolchain in use. Highkey useful when you're building for a whole other architecture, bestie.

🌈 FREESTANDING ENVIRONMENT 🌈

If run with -F, hare build will target a freestanding environment. This has the following effects:

• No constraints are imposed on the signature of "main"
• Specifying external libraries with -l will not automatically:
  • Link with libc (add -lc manually if required)
  • Add the +libc flag (add -T+libc manually if required)
  • Use the C compiler for linking (use LD=cc if required)

🧚 ENVIRONMENT 🧚

The following environment variables affect hare build's execution:

• HARECACHE — The path to the build cache. Defaults to $XDG_CACHE_HOME/hare, or ~/.cache/hare if $XDG_CACHE_HOME isn't set.
• HAREPATH — The list of directories to search for module dependencies in. See hare-module(5).
• NO_COLOR — Disables all color output when set to a non-empty string.
• HAREC_COLOR — Disables color output for harec when set to 0, enables it when set to any other value. This overrides NO_COLOR.
• HAREC — Name of the harec command to use.
• HARECFLAGS — Additional flags to pass to harec.
• QBE — Name of the qbe command to use.
• QBEFLAGS — Additional flags to pass to qbe.
• AR — Name of the ar(1) command to use.
• ARFLAGS — Additional flags to pass to ar(1).
• AS — Name of the as(1) command to use.
• ASFLAGS — Additional flags to pass to as(1).
• LD — Name of the ld(1) command to use.
• LDLINKFLAGS — Additional flags to pass to ld(1).
• CC — Name of the cc(1) command to use when linking external libraries.
• LDFLAGS — Additional linker flags to pass to cc(1).

🔥 SEE ALSO 🔥

Go give these manual pages some main character energy too: hare-run(1), hare-test(1), hare-module(5), ar(1), as(1), cc(1), ld(1).

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Signed, sealed, and delivered by hare-build(1) from the General Commands Manual, dated 2026-05-05 💖✨💅