Add rb-sys-cross crate for Docker-free cross-compilation via Zig#711
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Add rb-sys-cross crate for Docker-free cross-compilation via Zig#711
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Introduces a new CLI tool that cross-compiles Ruby native extensions using cargo-zigbuild and Zig as the C compiler, eliminating the need for Docker containers during cross-compilation. Key design decisions: - Typed cargo metadata structs instead of raw serde_json::Value - RbConfig newtype for type-safe rbconfig.json handling - Profile enum replacing string-based profile matching - CrossCompileEnv struct for typed cross-compilation environment - GemPackOptions struct to avoid 7-parameter function signatures - OnceLock for regex compilation in rbconfig.rb parsing - Utility module for shared helpers (gz_compress, hex_sha256, etc.) - Associated functions on Platform for find/all/list operations - clap Args derive on BuildOpts to eliminate CLI field duplication
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Situation
Cross-compiling Ruby native extensions today means Docker via
rake-compiler-dock— slow to set up, painful to debug, and a heavy dependency for something that's fundamentally a C compiler problem. Zig ships a hermetic cross-compiler for every major platform, making Docker unnecessary for this workflow.Execution
New
rb-sys-crossCLI crate that runs the full cross-compilation pipeline usingcargo-zigbuild:rbconfig.jsonper platform/version (built from source withzig cc, or pulled from GitHub releases)RBCONFIG_*env vars sorb-sys-buildskips shelling out to Ruby entirelycargo zigbuild --target <target> --release --lib.gemwith versioned.sofiles, a version-aware extension loader, and a gemspec derived fromCargo.tomlSupports 8 platforms (aarch64-linux, x86_64-linux, arm-linux, x86-linux, {aarch64,x86_64}-linux-musl, x64-mingw-ucrt, x64-mingw32). No Ruby install required — gem name, version, authors, and license are all pulled from
cargo metadata.```bash
rb-sys-cross build
--platform aarch64-linux --platform x86_64-linux
--ruby-version 3.3 --ruby-version 3.4
→ pkg/my_gem-1.0.0-aarch64-linux.gem, pkg/my_gem-1.0.0-x86_64-linux.gem
```