feat: add iOS cross-compilation targets for barretenberg-rs static libraries #20106

johnathan79717 · 2026-02-02T15:48:06Z

Summary

Adds iOS cross-compilation support for the barretenberg-rs FFI backend:

Add ios.toolchain.cmake from leetal/ios-cmake project for iOS cross-compilation
Add iOS CMake presets (ios-arm64 for device, ios-sim-arm64 for simulator)
Add build_ios function to bootstrap.sh for macOS runners
Add iOS static library packaging to build_release_dir
Update build.rs to support iOS targets (aarch64-apple-ios, aarch64-apple-ios-sim)
Update README with iOS supported targets
Update publish-bb-mac.yml workflow to build and release iOS static libraries on tag push

Supported iOS Targets

aarch64-apple-ios - iOS device (arm64)
aarch64-apple-ios-sim - iOS Simulator on Apple Silicon Macs

How it works

iOS builds cannot be cross-compiled from Linux (requires Xcode/iOS SDK). The publish-bb-mac.yml workflow:

Triggers on v* tag push (including ci-release-pr test tags)
Runs on macos-14 runner with Xcode
Builds bb-external target for both iOS presets
Packages and uploads barretenberg-static-arm64-ios.tar.gz and barretenberg-static-arm64-ios-sim.tar.gz to GitHub release

The main Linux release (ci3.yml) handles Linux and macOS (via zig cross-compile). iOS is handled separately by this workflow.

Notes

iOS builds are configured to:

Target iOS 14.0+
Disable ARC (Automatic Reference Counting)
Use the Ninja generator

Test plan

Add ci-release-pr label to trigger test release
Verify publish-bb-mac.yml workflow runs on macOS runner
Verify iOS presets configure and build successfully
Verify barretenberg-static-arm64-ios.tar.gz and barretenberg-static-arm64-ios-sim.tar.gz are uploaded to the test release

ludamad · 2026-02-02T15:55:51Z

we should make a workflow that runs with the mac runners to test this

johnathan79717 · 2026-02-02T16:21:50Z

we should make a workflow that runs with the mac runners to test this

I recycled publish-bb-mac.yml for this.

- Package barretenberg-static-amd64-darwin.tar.gz and barretenberg-static-arm64-darwin.tar.gz in release - Update build.rs to support macOS targets (x86_64-apple-darwin, aarch64-apple-darwin) - Use libc++ instead of libstdc++ on macOS - Update README with new supported targets

- Add ios.toolchain.cmake from leetal/ios-cmake project - Add iOS presets (ios-arm64, ios-sim-arm64) to CMakePresets.json - Add build_ios function to bootstrap.sh for macOS runners - Add iOS packaging to build_release_dir - Update build.rs to support iOS targets (aarch64-apple-ios, aarch64-apple-ios-sim) - Update README with iOS supported targets

- Re-enable tag trigger for v* releases - Replace macOS bb builds with iOS static library builds - Build ios-arm64 (device) and ios-sim-arm64 (simulator) presets - Package and upload barretenberg-static-arm64-ios.tar.gz artifacts

LMDB's ExternalProject_Add doesn't inherit iOS toolchain flags, causing build failures. Add MOBILE option to exclude LMDB, world_state, vm2, ipc, and nodejs_module for mobile builds.

…compatibility

- Update iOS deployment target from 14.0 to 16.3 for std::format support - Fix CMake 4.0 compatibility: replace deprecated PATH with DIRECTORY in ios.toolchain.cmake - Add MOBILE flag check to exclude lmdb_repo dependencies on iOS builds - Fix missing field initializers for strict compiler warnings (-Wmissing-field-initializers): - AcirProgram witness field in multiple files - ShpleminiVerifierOutput consistency_checked field - Replace variable-length arrays with std::vector for C++ compliance: - keccak.cpp: input_buffer - polynomial_arithmetic.cpp: numerator_polynomial, roots_and_denominators, temp_src, temp_dest - Fix iOS-specific includes: use unistd.h with extern getentropy declaration on iOS These changes enable building the bb-external static library target for iOS arm64 devices with CMake 4.0 and Xcode 26.2 on macOS.

The -Wdeprecated-literal-operator warning is only available in Clang 18+. Apple Clang doesn't support it, so add -Wunknown-warning-option first.

Adds a build-bb-ios job that runs when ci-barretenberg or ci-barretenberg-full labels are present. This cross-compiles bb-external for iOS devices (ios-arm64) and simulators (ios-sim-arm64) to catch iOS build issues before release. 🤖 Generated with [Claude Code](https://claude.com/claude-code) Co-Authored-By: Claude <[email protected]>

- Add download support for amd64-darwin, arm64-darwin, arm64-ios, arm64-ios-sim - Fix C++ stdlib linking: use c++ for Apple targets, stdc++ for Linux 🤖 Generated with [Claude Code](https://claude.com/claude-code) Co-Authored-By: Claude <[email protected]>

The crate version is 0.1.0 which is a development version. The check should skip download attempts for any 0.x.x version when BARRETENBERG_VERSION is not explicitly set. Real releases will have BARRETENBERG_VERSION set to the aztec-packages version (e.g., 4.0.0). 🤖 Generated with [Claude Code](https://claude.com/claude-code) Co-Authored-By: Claude <[email protected]>

The ffi feature is enabled by default in Cargo.toml, so the build function needs BB_LIB_DIR to point to the local cpp library. Without this, build.rs tries to download from GitHub releases which fails for development versions. 🤖 Generated with [Claude Code](https://claude.com/claude-code) Co-Authored-By: Claude <[email protected]>

johnathan79717 requested a review from charlielye as a code owner February 2, 2026 16:01

johnathan79717 added the ci-release-pr label Feb 2, 2026

johnathan79717 removed the request for review from charlielye February 2, 2026 16:20