January 28, 2026
Build Wars: Lua vs the World
Xmake: A cross-platform build utility based on Lua
Xmake promises faster C/C++ builds — commenters demand receipts while one screams “slooooooow”
TLDR: Xmake touts easy Lua scripts, faster builds, and cloud-friendly features for C/C++ developers. The crowd wants concrete comparisons and migration guidance, while one high‑profile complaint of “slooooooow” sparks doubts and a Premake vs Xmake showdown, making proof and benchmarks the price of admission.
Xmake is pitching itself as the slick, modern way to build C and C++ apps: simple Lua scripts, speed boosts from caching and parallel work, remote/distributed builds for big teams, and one-click library fetching with tools like vcpkg and Conan. It even spits out projects for your favorite IDEs. Sounds dreamy… but the comments turned it into a build-tool cage match.
The loudest chorus? “Show, don’t tell.” One user begged for a homepage code snippet and side‑by‑side charts against CMake, Ninja, Meson, and Bazel. Another asked, in plain panic, how ugly a migration from Microsoft’s world (MSBuild + vcpkg) would be. Then a grenade lands: “My work uses this and it’s slooooooow,” sparking memes and nervous laughter. Fans counter with “Bazel vibes” — hermetic, reproducible builds and remote execution — but even they admit the docs don’t deliver a clear head‑to‑head. Is Xmake a Bazel‑lite that’s actually easy, or just another shiny toy?
And then the curveball: “What’s wrong with Premake, which is also Lua?” Suddenly it’s Lua vs Lua, with skeptics asking why they should switch and diehards insisting Xmake’s plugins, dependency magic, and cloud build story are the differentiators. Verdict from the peanut gallery: Xmake looks powerful, but the internet wants proof, benchmarks, and a five‑minute demo — yesterday.
Key Points
- •Xmake is a cross-platform build utility for modern C/C++ projects using concise Lua-based configuration.
- •It provides high-performance builds via built-in caching, parallel compilation, and optimized dependency analysis.
- •Xmake supports extensive customization through rules, plugins, and modules, and enables remote/distributed builds.
- •The tool handles mixed-language projects and can automatically generate project files for major IDEs.
- •Dependency management is streamlined with automatic fetching/integration of libraries/toolchains, private repos, cloud builds, and integration with Conan and Vcpkg.