Building NativeLink with Bazel

These instructions contain information on how to work with NativeLink for Bazel users.

If you’re using the Nix flake you’re all set.

If you’re running outside of nix, install Bazelisk manually and make sure you have a recent functional C++ toolchain with LLD as linker. On Unix you’ll also have to add --extra_toolchains=@rust_toolchains//:all to all of your Bazel invocations to allow the use of non-hermetic Rust toolchains. Windows is non-hermetic by default.

Build

The following commands places an executable in ./bazel-bin/nativelink and starts the service:

bazel run nativelink -- \
    $(pwd)/nativelink-config/examples/basic_cas.json5

bazel run --extra_toolchains=@rust_toolchains//:all nativelink -- \
    $(pwd)/nativelink-config/examples/basic_cas.json5

bazel run --config=windows nativelink -- \
    $(pwd)/nativelink-config/examples/basic_cas.json5

For optimized builds:

bazel run -c opt nativelink -- \
    $(pwd)/nativelink-config/examples/basic_cas.json5

bazel run -c opt --extra_toolchains=@rust_toolchains//:all nativelink -- \
    $(pwd)/nativelink-config/examples/basic_cas.json5

bazel run --config=windows -c opt nativelink -- \
    $(pwd)/nativelink-config/examples/basic_cas.json5

The Rust compiler rustc generates large artifacts during compilation, including dependencies, macros, and intermediate files. When compiling programs from source, be mindful of the associated files’ impact on your disk usage in the bazel-bin/ directory.

If you’re facing issues due to this, run the following command to clear cache files:

bazel clean --expunge

Test

To run tests with Bazel:

bazel test //... --verbose_failures

bazel test --extra_toolchains=@rust_toolchains//:all //... --verbose_failures

bazel test --config=windows //... --verbose_failures