Last Updated on March 7, 2026
xmake is a modern build tool that aims to be simple, fast, and offering powerful dependency package integration.
Compared with Makefiles or CMake, the configuration syntax is much concise and intuitive. As such, it’s friendly to novices while still maintaining the flexibly required in a build system. With xmake, you can focus on your project instead of the build.
xmake can be used to directly build source code (like with Make or Ninja), or it can generate project source files like CMake or Meson. It also has a built-in package management system to help users integrate C/C++ dependencies.
This is free and open source software.
Website: xmake.io
Support: GitHub Code Repository
Developer: ruki
License: Apache License 2.0
xmake is written in Lua and C. Learn Lua with our recommended free books and free tutorials. Learn C with our recommended free books and free tutorials.
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Read our verdict in the software roundup.
 Explore our comprehensive directory of recommended free and open source software. Our carefully curated collection spans every major software category.This directory is part of our ongoing series of informative articles for Linux enthusiasts. It features hundreds of detailed reviews, along with open source alternatives to proprietary solutions from major corporations such as Google, Microsoft, Apple, Adobe, IBM, Cisco, Oracle, and Autodesk. You’ll also find interesting projects to try, hardware coverage, free programming books and tutorials, and much more. Discovered a useful open source Linux program that we haven’t covered yet? Let us know by completing this form. |