Prerequisites

Supported hosts

Host	Native archive target	Binary compatibility floor
Linux x86-64	x86_64-unknown-linux-gnu	glibc 2.36
Linux ARM64	aarch64-unknown-linux-gnu	glibc 2.36
macOS Apple silicon	aarch64-apple-darwin	macOS 13

These are the native release targets. Public availability is listed separately under release status. Windows is not a supported native host. macOS Intel is not a native archive or package-manager target; an Intel source build is outside the supported distribution contract.

Build and use the tools

Install Rust through your normal Rust toolchain manager. The repository’s rust-toolchain.toml selects Rust 1.98.0 automatically when you run Cargo. You need Git and a working native compiler/linker to build the Rust workspace.

AROS workflows additionally use CMake, Ninja, Python 3.11 or newer, curl, a POSIX patch, and system CA certificates. Git manages sources; CMake and Ninja build products; the fetcher may invoke curl and patch; the independent verifier invokes upstream’s Python GenMF implementation.

macOS

Install the Xcode Command Line Tools if they are not already present:

xcode-select --install
brew install git cmake ninja python@3.14 curl pkg-config

The command-line tools include the system compiler and patch.

Debian or Ubuntu

sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install --yes build-essential ca-certificates git cmake \
  ninja-build python3 curl patch pkg-config

Check python3 --version; older distribution releases may need a newer Python. Target-specific AROS dependencies are additional to these host tools.

Optional workflows

Task	Additional tools
PC boot check with aros test	qemu-system-x86_64 (Homebrew qemu; Debian qemu-system-x86)
Compiler caching	sccache or ccache on PATH, plus an explicit aros cache compiler prepare local namespace
Serial board console	picocom, screen or minicom; inspect aros board console --help
Verify a native release	jq, GitHub CLI with gh attestation verify, cosign, tar, SHA-256 utility
Install from signed APT	curl, GnuPG (gpg and gpgconf), dpkg

For signature verification, check the installed CLI supports gh attestation verify --deny-self-hosted-runners and cosign verify-blob --bundle. Follow the GitHub CLI and cosign installation guides when the distribution versions are too old.

Node.js, npm, ShellCheck and the Rust audit helpers are needed to contribute to the tools, not to run an already built suite.

Local native producer candidates

This section applies only to maintainers building a compiler candidate from source. It is not a prerequisite for installing a released cross-toolchain.

In addition to the AROS workflow tools above, install the Rust toolchain named by the selected aros-tools checkout, Cargo, GNU Make (or a compatible make), and enough local storage for isolated source snapshots. The current pc-x86_64 proof consumed about 2.6 GB for the work tree, 0.42 GB for the verified cache, and 0.17–0.21 GB for the resulting prefix, excluding the three input checkouts. These are observed values, not a capacity guarantee; reserve more space for retained diagnostics and other profiles.

The unchanged upstream AROS build uses a host Python interpreter and the lock-selected Mako modules. The producer creates a private import environment from verified cache archives; it does not use pip, ambient site packages, or an inferred virtual environment. Cargo similarly resolves from a lock-matched vendor tree during the offline build. See the native producer workflow for the explicit cache preparation sequence.

Network and storage

Initial source and compiler downloads need access to their declared origins. --offline on supported build/toolchain commands requires local inputs; it does not turn source cloning into an offline operation.

Keep AROS sources and builds on a case-sensitive filesystem. On macOS, a case-sensitive APFS volume is suitable. Avoid cloud-synchronized build directories. Space requirements depend on the target and retained build trees; the tools do not promise a fixed minimum.

Next: build and install the suite.