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Zig-produced iOS static library is rejected by Xcode 26.4: archive member not 8-byte aligned #35280

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opened 2026年05月10日 20:06:31 +02:00 by Preeternal · 3 comments

Zig Version

0.16.0

Steps to Reproduce and Observed Behavior

I ran into this while building an iOS XCFramework from a Zig static library. With Xcode 26.4, the Apple linker rejects the .a produced by Zig because the Mach-O member inside the archive is not 8-byte aligned.

Minimal repro:

tiny.zig:

exportfnadd(a:i32,b:i32)i32{returna+b;}

main.c:

extern int add(int, int);
int main(void) {
 return add(1, 2);
}

Build the static library and link it with Apple's linker:

zig build-lib tiny.zig -target aarch64-ios-simulator -O ReleaseFast -femit-bin=libtiny.a
xcrun -sdk iphonesimulator clang -target arm64-apple-ios15.1-simulator main.c libtiny.a -o test-arm64-sim

On my machine this fails with:

ld: 64-bit mach-o member 'libtiny_zcu.o' not 8-byte aligned in 'libtiny.a'
clang: error: linker command failed with exit code 1

If I extract the same object file and repack it with Apple's libtool, the link succeeds:

mkdir repack
cd repack
xcrun ar -x ../libtiny.a
chmod u+rw *.o
xcrun libtool -static -o ../libtiny-repacked.a *.o
xcrun ranlib ../libtiny-repacked.a
cd ..
xcrun -sdk iphonesimulator clang -target arm64-apple-ios15.1-simulator main.c libtiny-repacked.a -o test-arm64-sim

So the object file itself seems usable; the problem appears to be the archive layout produced by Zig.

This may be related to #30572, but the failure mode here is specific to Apple's linker and 64-bit Mach-O archive members needing 8-byte alignment.

Environment:

Apple Silicon Mac
macOS 26.3.1
Xcode 26.4
target: aarch64-ios-simulator / arm64-apple-ios15.1-simulator

I can reproduce this with both Zig 0.16.0 and Zig 0.15.2. With the official 0.15.2 tarball there is also a separate Xcode 26.4 SDK/TBD issue, so for 0.15.2 I used Homebrew zig@0.15, which includes the Dylib.zig backport.

Expected Behavior

The static library produced by Zig should be accepted by Apple's linker for iOS simulator targets.

### Zig Version 0.16.0 ### Steps to Reproduce and Observed Behavior I ran into this while building an iOS XCFramework from a Zig static library. With Xcode 26.4, the Apple linker rejects the `.a` produced by Zig because the Mach-O member inside the archive is not 8-byte aligned. Minimal repro: `tiny.zig`: ```zig export fn add(a: i32, b: i32) i32 { return a + b; } ``` `main.c`: ```c extern int add(int, int); int main(void) { return add(1, 2); } ``` Build the static library and link it with Apple's linker: ``` zig build-lib tiny.zig -target aarch64-ios-simulator -O ReleaseFast -femit-bin=libtiny.a xcrun -sdk iphonesimulator clang -target arm64-apple-ios15.1-simulator main.c libtiny.a -o test-arm64-sim ``` On my machine this fails with: ``` ld: 64-bit mach-o member 'libtiny_zcu.o' not 8-byte aligned in 'libtiny.a' clang: error: linker command failed with exit code 1 ``` If I extract the same object file and repack it with Apple's libtool, the link succeeds: ``` mkdir repack cd repack xcrun ar -x ../libtiny.a chmod u+rw *.o xcrun libtool -static -o ../libtiny-repacked.a *.o xcrun ranlib ../libtiny-repacked.a cd .. xcrun -sdk iphonesimulator clang -target arm64-apple-ios15.1-simulator main.c libtiny-repacked.a -o test-arm64-sim ``` So the object file itself seems usable; the problem appears to be the archive layout produced by Zig. This may be related to #30572, but the failure mode here is specific to Apple's linker and 64-bit Mach-O archive members needing 8-byte alignment. Environment: ``` Apple Silicon Mac macOS 26.3.1 Xcode 26.4 target: aarch64-ios-simulator / arm64-apple-ios15.1-simulator ``` I can reproduce this with both Zig 0.16.0 and Zig 0.15.2. With the official 0.15.2 tarball there is also a separate Xcode 26.4 SDK/TBD issue, so for 0.15.2 I used Homebrew `zig@0.15`, which includes the Dylib.zig backport. ### Expected Behavior The static library produced by Zig should be accepted by Apple's linker for iOS simulator targets.

Just adding my thoughts:

As LLvm-ar decribes:

 // ld64 expects the members to be 8-byte aligned for 64-bit content and at
 // least 4-byte aligned for 32-bit content. Opt for the larger encoding
 // uniformly for BSDlike. Others are fine with 2
 // We do this for all bsd formats because it simplifies aligning members.

Zig sets zig\src\link\MachO\Archive.zig on line ~215 padding to

conststrtab_size=mem.alignForward(usize,ar.strtab.buffer.items.len,ptr_width);constpadding=strtab_size-ar.strtab.buffer.items.len;

So there would only be an issue when ptr_width = 4 instead of 8.....

For some reason, in zig\src\link\MachO\relocatable.zig , pub fn flushStaticLib we do

constformat:Archive.Format=.p32;constptr_width=Archive.ptrWidth(format);

Which gets passed to

// Write symtabar_symtab.write(format,macho_file,&writer)catch|err|returndiags.fail("failed to write archive symbol table: {t}",.{err});

causing the issue by aligning to 4 instead of 8

Considering who wrote the Code, we would have to ask https://codeberg.org/kubkon why he chose ptr_width of 4

Just adding my thoughts: As LLvm-ar decribes: ``` // ld64 expects the members to be 8-byte aligned for 64-bit content and at // least 4-byte aligned for 32-bit content. Opt for the larger encoding // uniformly for BSDlike. Others are fine with 2 // We do this for all bsd formats because it simplifies aligning members. ``` Zig sets zig\src\link\MachO\Archive.zig on line ~215 padding to ``` zig const strtab_size = mem.alignForward(usize, ar.strtab.buffer.items.len, ptr_width); const padding = strtab_size - ar.strtab.buffer.items.len; ``` **So there would only be an issue when ptr_width = 4 instead of 8.....** For some reason, in zig\src\link\MachO\relocatable.zig , pub fn flushStaticLib we do ``` zig const format: Archive.Format = .p32; const ptr_width = Archive.ptrWidth(format); ``` Which gets passed to ``` zig // Write symtab ar_symtab.write(format, macho_file, &writer) catch |err| return diags.fail("failed to write archive symbol table: {t}", .{err}); ``` causing the issue by aligning to 4 instead of 8 Considering who wrote the Code, we would have to ask https://codeberg.org/kubkon why he chose ptr_width of 4

related to #9828

related to [#9828](https://github.com/ziglang/zig/issues/9828)

I tested and xcrun passed now without repack

xcrun -sdk iphonesimulator clang \
 -target arm64-apple-ios15.1-simulator \
 main.c libtiny-llvm.a -o test-llvm
xcrun -sdk iphonesimulator clang \
 -target arm64-apple-ios15.1-simulator \
 main.c libtiny-no-llvm.a -o test-no-llvm

There is Mach-O magic offset search and offset is divisible by 8 / 8-byte aligned inside libtiny.a:

perl -0777 -ne 'while (/\xcf\xfa\xed\xfe/g) { printf "mach-o @ %d mod8=%d\n", $-[0], $-[0] % 8 }' libtiny.a

mach-o @ 184 mod8=0

I raised PRs into both 0.16x and master branches

I tested and xcrun passed now without repack ```sh xcrun -sdk iphonesimulator clang \ -target arm64-apple-ios15.1-simulator \ main.c libtiny-llvm.a -o test-llvm xcrun -sdk iphonesimulator clang \ -target arm64-apple-ios15.1-simulator \ main.c libtiny-no-llvm.a -o test-no-llvm ``` There is Mach-O magic offset search and offset is divisible by 8 / 8-byte aligned inside libtiny.a: `perl -0777 -ne 'while (/\xcf\xfa\xed\xfe/g) { printf "mach-o @ %d mod8=%d\n", $-[0], $-[0] % 8 }' libtiny.a ` `mach-o @ 184 mod8=0` I raised PRs into both 0.16x and master branches
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