VALAC(1)

📦
version 0.56.19 · 6 versions
, in alpine 3.24, arch rolling, fedora 43, fedora 44, nixos 26.05, nixpkgs unstable, ubuntu stonking

okay bestie, pull up a chair 🪑✨ meet valac — she's a User Commands icon and honestly? she ate.

💖 NAME 💖

valac — the compiler that translates Vala source code into C source and header files 🦋

✨ SYNOPSIS ✨

valac [OPTION]... [FILE]...

🌸 DESCRIPTION 🌸

Vala is a programming language that aims to bring modern programming language features to GNOME developers without imposing any additional runtime requirements and without using a different ABI compared to applications and libraries written in C. no cap, that's the whole vibe 💅

valac, the Vala compiler, is a self-hosting compiler that translates Vala source code into C source and header files. She uses the GObject type system to create classes and interfaces declared in the Vala source code. it's giving iconic, fr fr 🎀

🫶 Usage:

valac [OPTION???] FILE... - Vala Compiler

💜 Help Options:

  • -?, --help — Show help options 🙈

👑 Application Options:

  • --vapidir=DIRECTORY... — Look for package bindings in DIRECTORY 🍓
  • --girdir=DIRECTORY... — Look for .gir files in DIRECTORY ✨
  • --metadatadir=DIRECTORY... — Look for GIR .metadata files in DIRECTORY 🔍
  • --pkg=PACKAGE... — Include binding for PACKAGE 📦
  • --vapi=FILE — Output VAPI file name 📝
  • --library=NAME — Library name 📚
  • --shared-library=NAME — Shared library name used in generated gir 💞
  • --gir=NAME-VERSION.gir — GObject-Introspection repository file name 🧚
  • -b, --basedir=DIRECTORY — Base source directory 🏠
  • -d, --directory=DIRECTORY — Change output directory from current working directory 📁
  • --version — Display version number 🔢
  • --api-version — Display API version number 🌈
  • -C, --ccode — Output C code 💻
  • -H, --header=FILE — Output C header file 📄
  • --use-header — Use C header file (DEPRECATED AND IGNORED) 💀
  • --includedir=DIRECTORY — Directory used to include the C header file 📂
  • -h, --internal-header=FILE — Output internal C header file 🔒
  • --internal-vapi=FILE — Output vapi with internal api 🙊
  • --fast-vapi — Output vapi without performing symbol resolution ⚡
  • --use-fast-vapi — Use --fast-vapi output during this compile 🏃‍♀️
  • --vapi-comments — Include comments in generated vapi 💬
  • --deps — Write make-style dependency information to this file 🔗
  • --depfile — Write make-style external dependency information for build systems to this file 🛠️
  • --list-sources — Output a list of all source and binding files which are used 📋
  • --symbols=FILE — Output symbols file 🔣
  • -c, --compile — Compile but do not link ✂️
  • -o, --output=FILE — Place output in file FILE 📤
  • -g, --debug — Produce debug information 🐞
  • --thread — Enable multithreading support (DEPRECATED AND IGNORED) 💀
  • --enable-mem-profiler — Enable GLib memory profiler 🧠
  • -D, --define=SYMBOL... — Define SYMBOL 🏷️
  • --main=SYMBOL... — Use SYMBOL as entry point 🚪
  • --nostdpkg — Do not include standard packages 🚫
  • --disable-assert — Disable assertions 🤐
  • --enable-checking — Enable additional run-time checks ✅
  • --enable-deprecated — Enable deprecated features 🕰️
  • --hide-internal — Hide symbols marked as internal 🙈
  • --enable-experimental — Enable experimental features 🧪
  • --disable-warnings — Disable warnings 🔇
  • --fatal-warnings — Treat warnings as fatal ⚠️
  • --disable-since-check — Do not check whether used symbols exist in local packages 🚷
  • -k, --keep-going — Continue as much as possible after an error 🚶‍♀️
  • --enable-experimental-non-null — Enable experimental enhancements for non-null types 🧪
  • --enable-gobject-tracing — Enable GObject creation tracing 👀
  • --cc=COMMAND — Use COMMAND as C compiler command 🧰
  • -X, --Xcc=OPTION... — Pass OPTION to the C compiler 📨
  • --pkg-config=COMMAND — Use COMMAND as pkg-config command 🔧
  • --dump-tree=FILE — Write code tree to FILE 🌳
  • --save-temps — Keep temporary files 🗂️
  • --profile=PROFILE — Minimum runtime dependency: 'gobject' (default) or 'posix' (minimal libc). gobject enables GLib's GType runtime type system. The runtime environment will usually require libgobject and its small number of dependencies. posix removes the dependency on GLib and disables the runtime type system. The profile either generates alternative code or errors at compile time if a Vala language feature is used that requires the runtime type system. This is useful for writing code, for example, that targets microcontrollers or for extremely small system utilities or container images. The runtime environment will usually require a small subset of the ISO C standard library. 🧚
  • -q, --quiet — Do not print messages to the console 🤫
  • -v, --verbose — Print additional messages to the console 🗣️
  • --no-color — Disable colored output, alias for --color=never 🎨
  • --color=WHEN — Enable color output, options are 'always', 'never', or 'auto'. When no value is given always is implied. When neither --color or --no-color are declared then --color=auto is used where output is colored when stderr is a terminal. 🌈
  • --target-glib='MAJOR.MINOR', or 'auto' — Target version of glib for code generation 🎯
  • --gresources=FILE... — XML of gresources 🖼️
  • --gresourcesdir=DIRECTORY... — Look for resources in DIRECTORY 🔎
  • --enable-version-header — Write vala build version in generated files 🏷️
  • --disable-version-header — Do not write vala build version in generated files 🚫
  • --run-args — Arguments passed to directly compiled executable 🏃
  • --abi-stability — Enable support for ABI stability. This changes the current behaviour to output public members of classes and interfaces the same order as they appear in Vala source. For libraries is recommended to use --abi-stability to ensure the maintainability of the resulting Application Binary Interface (ABI). This option is disabled by default for backward compatibility because it can break ABI of existing projects. 💀

🐛 BUGS 🐛

https://gitlab.gnome.org/GNOME/vala/issues — take it there bestie, she'll listen 🫶

🏠 HOMEPAGE OR CONTACT 🏠

https://vala.dev ✨

🌈 FEATURES 🌈

Interfaces, properties, signals, foreach, lambda expressions, type inference for local variables, generics, non-null types, assisted memory management, exception handling 💅 the way that list just keeps going…

👑 AUTHORS 👑

J??rg Billeter, Raffaele Sandrini, Rico Tzschichholz. legends only, fr fr 🙌

and that's a wrap on the VALAC(1) page, bestie — she's Vala 0.56.19, dated March 2026, and she's out here compiling your dreams into C. go write something iconic, ily 💖✨🎀🦋

📦 where this page comes from