Build native apps for
bflat is a native compiler for C# that comes with everything you need to build C# apps for any of the supported platforms. No additional SDKs or NDKs needed.
Battle-tested fundamentals
Based on parts of the .NET 8 SDK that is trusted by developers all around the world, but reimagined as native-first and stripped to the bare minimum needed to build native apps with C#. Based on CoreCLR's code generator and GC.
Choose your standard library
Comes with two standard libraries: one (DotNet) that is compatible with .NET and supports everything from console to JSON, and another (Zero) that is stripped to bare minimum and doesn't even have a GC.
Build native apps or shared libraries
Produce native apps and native libraries. Consume C# libraries built with bflat from other languages using their respective FFI interface.
Bring your own build system
Invoke bflat directly from terminal, integrate with a shell script, Makefile, or even MSBuild. The choice is yours.
Standard libraries supported by bflat at a glance
| DotNet | Zero | |
| Primitive types | ✓ | ✓ |
| Rich standard library | ✓ | ✗ |
| Marshalling-less p/invoke | ✓ | ✓ |
| Full p/invoke | ✓ | ✗ |
| Garbage collector | ✓ | ✗ |
| Exception handling | ✓ | ✗ |
| Building apps and libraries | ✓ | ✓ |
| Target Linux, Windows, Android | ✓ | ✓ |
| Target UEFI | ✗ | ✓ |
| Starting app size | 600 kB | 4 kB |
Run C# with no operating system, on bare metal
Build native code or .NET bytecode
$ bflat build --help
Description:
Compiles the specified C# source files into native code
Usage:
bflat build [<>...] [options]
Arguments:
<file list>
Options:
-d, --define <define> Define conditional compilation symbol(s)
-r, --reference <file list> Additional .NET assemblies to include
--target <Exe|Shared|WinExe> Build target
-o, --out <file> Output file path
-c Produce object file, but don't run linker
--ldflags <ldflags> Arguments to pass to the linker
-x Print the commands
--arch <x86|x64|arm64> Target architecture
--os <linux|windows|uefi> Target operating system
-m <{isa1}[,{isaN}]|native> Target instruction set extensions
--libc <libc> Target libc (Windows: shcrt|none, Linux: glibc|bionic)
-Os, --optimize-space Favor code space when optimizing
-Ot, --optimize-time Favor code speed when optimizing
-O0, --no-optimization Disable optimizations
--no-reflection Disable support for reflection
--no-stacktrace-data Disable support for textual stack traces
--no-globalization Disable support for globalization (use invariant mode)
--no-exception-messages Disable exception messages
--no-pie Do not generate position independent executable
--separate-symbols Separate debugging symbols (Linux)
--no-debug-info Disable generation of debug information
--map <file> Generate an object map file
--mstat Produce MSTAT and DGML files for size analysis
-i <library|library!function> Bind to entrypoint statically
--feature <Feature=[true|false]> Set feature switch value
-res, --resource <<file>[,<name>[,public|private]]> Managed resource to include
--stdlib <DotNet|None|Zero> C# standard library to use
--deterministic Produce deterministic outputs including timestamps
--verbose Enable verbose logging
--langversion <langversion> C# language version ('latest', 'default', 'latestmajor',
'preview', or version like '6' or '7.1'
-?, -h, --help Show help and usage information