Targets and cross-compilation

elephc compiles to native machine code for a fixed set of first-class targets. All supported targets are equal: a feature is not considered done until it works on every one of them.

Supported target matrix

Target	Platform	Architecture
macos-aarch64	macOS	ARM64 (Apple Silicon)
ios-arm64	iOS device	ARM64
ios-sim-arm64	iOS Simulator	ARM64
linux-aarch64	Linux	ARM64
linux-x86_64	Linux	x86-64

By default the compiler targets the host it runs on, detected automatically.

Selecting a target

elephc --target linux-aarch64 hello.php
elephc --target linux-x86_64 hello.php
elephc --target=macos-aarch64 hello.php
elephc --target ios-arm64 --emit staticlib module.php
elephc --target ios-sim-arm64 --emit staticlib module.php

Both the spaced (--target VALUE) and inline (--target=VALUE) forms work.

Accepted spellings

Each target accepts several spellings, including the LLVM-style triple, so build scripts written for other toolchains keep working:

Canonical	Also accepted
macos-aarch64	macos-arm64, aarch64-apple-darwin
ios-arm64	ios-aarch64, aarch64-apple-ios
ios-sim-arm64	ios-simulator-arm64, aarch64-apple-ios-simulator
linux-aarch64	linux-arm64, aarch64-unknown-linux-gnu
linux-x86_64	x86_64-unknown-linux-gnu

iOS targets are ARM64-only. ios-x86_64, ios-sim-x86_64, and their x86_64 Apple-triple spellings are rejected during target parsing with an arm64-only diagnostic.

The parser also recognizes macos-x86_64 / x86_64-apple-darwin and windows-x86_64 / x86_64-pc-windows-msvc / x86_64-pc-windows-gnu. These spellings are groundwork for future backends, not supported targets: compilation stops with an explicit unsupported-backend diagnostic.

Cross-compilation notes

Selecting a target different from the host produces assembly and an object file for that target. Producing a final linked binary still depends on having a linker and any target libraries available for that platform; the elephc test suite uses the Docker scripts under scripts/ to build and run the Linux targets from a macOS host.

iOS output is a native library consumed by an application host, not a complete signed .app bundle. Select --emit staticlib (the usual Xcode delivery form) or --emit cdylib; standalone --emit executable output is rejected for both iOS device and Simulator targets. A linked iOS library requires macOS with the matching Xcode SDK. --emit-asm can stop before assembling, but it must still be paired with a library emit kind so the assembly contains the public library ABI.

For the target-aware ABI and runtime details behind each platform, see Architecture and The Code Generator.