Backend Options

These options control the LLVM backend and linker path used by wavec. They are intentionally explicit because Wave targets native code, freestanding systems, UEFI, and cross-compilation.

Important options

--target=<triple> selects the LLVM target. --cpu, --features, and --abi refine code generation. --sysroot affects compile/link search paths. -C linker=..., -C link-arg=..., and -C link-sysroot=... control the linker. -C no-default-libs disables automatic libc/libm linking. -C relocation-model=... and -C code-model=... select low-level code generation models.

Freestanding policy

--freestanding assumes no hosted C runtime. It disables default libraries, disables the red zone, emits no-unwind style IR, and favors static relocation for freestanding targets unless explicitly overridden.

wavec build kernel.wave --target x86_64-unknown-none-elf --freestanding --emit=obj -o kernel.o

UEFI path

UEFI uses PE/COFF, not SysV ELF. The recommended path is to emit a COFF object with --target x86_64-pc-windows-gnu --freestanding --emit=obj, then link it with lld-link using /subsystem:efi_application, /entry:<symbol>, /machine:x64, and /nodefaultlib.

wavec build boot.wave --target x86_64-pc-windows-gnu --freestanding --emit=obj -o boot.obj
lld-link /subsystem:efi_application /entry:efi_entry /machine:x64 /nodefaultlib /out:BOOTX64.EFI boot.obj

Capability queries

Higher-level tools should query wavec print target-list, supported-emit-kinds, supported-input-types, and default-linker rather than hard-coding assumptions.

wavec print target-list
wavec print supported-emit-kinds
wavec print supported-input-types
wavec print default-linker