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OGKevin merged 2 commits into from
May 26, 2026
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docs: update macOS platform support for cross-compilation #520

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docs: update macOS platform support for cross-compilation
OGKevin May 26, 2026
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chore: review
OGKevin May 26, 2026
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19 changes: 7 additions & 12 deletions docs/src/contributing/devenv-setup.md
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Expand Up @@ -52,7 +52,7 @@ Once inside the devenv shell, these commands are available:
| `cargo xtask download-assets` | Download packaged Plato runtime assets |
| `cargo xtask test` | Run the test suite across the feature matrix |
| `cargo xtask run-emulator` | Run the emulator |
| `cargo xtask build-kobo` | Cross-compile for Kobo device (Linux only) |
| `cargo xtask build-kobo` | Cross-compile for Kobo device |
| `cargo xtask dist` | Assemble the Kobo distribution directory |
| `cargo xtask bundle` | Package KoboRoot.tgz for installation |
| `cadmus-dev-otel` | Run emulator with tracing and profiling enabled |
Expand All @@ -77,7 +77,7 @@ Tasks are defined in `devenv.nix` and can be run with `devenv tasks run <task>`.
| ------------- | --------------------------------------------------------- | ------------ |
| `docs:build` | Build documentation EPUB (only rebuilds if files changed) | None |
| `deps:native` | Build MuPDF and wrapper for native development | None |
| `build:kobo` | Build for Kobo device (Linux only) | `docs:build` |
| `build:kobo` | Build for Kobo device | `docs:build` |

All tasks delegate to `cargo xtask` under the hood.

Expand Down Expand Up @@ -184,21 +184,16 @@ Linux provides full development capabilities including:

The Linaro toolchain is automatically added to `PATH` and provides `arm-linux-gnueabihf-*` commands.

### macOS (Native Development Only)
### macOS (Full Support)

macOS supports native development but has some limitations:
macOS supports full development capabilities including:

| Feature | Status | Notes |
| ----------------- | ------------- | ------------------------------ |
| Native builds | Supported | Emulator and tests work |
| Cross-compilation | Not supported | Linaro toolchain is Linux-only |
- Native development (emulator, tests)
- Cross-compilation for Kobo devices using the Linaro ARM toolchain
- Git hooks (actionlint, shellcheck, shfmt, markdownlint, prettier)

#### macOS-Specific Notes

**Cross-compilation for Kobo**: The Linaro ARM cross-compilation toolchain consists of x86_64 Linux
ELF binaries that cannot run on macOS. To build for Kobo devices on macOS, use Docker with a Linux
container or a Linux VM.

**MuPDF build**: On macOS, the native setup script manually gathers pkg-config CFLAGS for system
libraries because MuPDF's build system doesn't properly detect them on Darwin.

Expand Down