Platforms

Overview

Bazel can build and test code on a variety of operating systems and hardware using many different build tools, such as linkers and compilers. These combinations of software and hardware are what Bazel considers platforms. One major use for specifying a platform for a build is automatic toolchain selection.

Bazel recognizes the following types of platforms:

  • Host - platforms on which Bazel runs.
  • Execution - platforms on which build tools execute build actions.
  • Target - platforms for which Bazel builds the output.

Bazel supports the following build scenarios regarding platforms:

  • Single-platform builds (default) - host, execution, and target platforms are the same. For example, building a Linux executable on Ubuntu running on an Intel x64 CPU.

  • Cross-compilation builds - host and execution platforms are the same, but the target platform is different. For example, building an iOS app on macOS running on a MacBook Pro.

  • Multi-platform builds - host, execution, and target platforms are all different.

Defining a platform

A Bazel platform is a named collection of constraints that define a supported software and/or hardware configuration through name-value pairs. For example, a constraint can define the CPU architecture, GPU presence, or the specific version of a build tool, such as a linker or compiler.

You define a platform in a BUILD file using the following Bazel rules:

The following example defines the glibc_version constraint and its two allowed values. It then defines a platform that uses the glibc_version constraint along with Bazel’s built-in constraints for operating systems and CPU architecture:

constraint_setting(name = 'glibc_version')

constraint_value(
    name = 'glibc_2_25',
    constraint_setting = ':glibc_version')

constraint_value(
    name = 'glibc_2_26',
    constraint_setting = ':glibc_version')

platform(
    name = 'linux_x86',
    constraint_values = [
      '@bazel_tools//platforms:linux',
      '@bazel_tools//platforms:x86_64',
      ':glibc_2_25',
    ])

Keep the following in mind when defining constraints and platforms that use them:

  • You can define constraints in any Bazel package within the project.

  • Constraints follow the visibility settings of the package that contains them.

  • You can use constraint values from multiple packages in the same platform definition. However, using constraint values that share a constraint setting will result in an error.

Built-in constraints and platforms

Bazel ships with constraint definitions for the most popular CPU architectures and operating systems.

  • @bazel_tools//platforms:cpu defines the following CPU architectures:
    • @bazel_tools//platforms:x86_32
    • @bazel_tools//platforms:x86_64
    • @bazel_tools//platforms:ppc
    • @bazel_tools//platforms:arm
    • @bazel_tools//platforms:s390x
  • @bazel_tools//platforms:os defines the following operating systems:
  • @bazel_tools//platforms:osx
  • @bazel_tools//platforms:freebsd
  • @bazel_tools//platforms:linux
  • @bazel_tools//platforms:windows

Bazel also ships with the following platform definitions:

  • @bazel_tools//platforms:host_platform - automatically detects the CPU architecture and operating system for the host platform.

  • @bazel_tools//platforms:target_platform - automatically detects the CPU architecture and operating system for the target platform.

In these definitions, the CPU architecture constraint values are pulled from the --host_cpu and --cpu flags.

Specifying a platform for a build

To select a specific host and target platform for a build, use the following command-line flags:

  • --host_platform - defaults to @bazel_tools//platforms:host_platform

  • --platforms - defaults to @bazel_tools//platforms:target_platform

Platforms can also be used with the config_setting rule to define configurable attributes. See config_setting for more details.