Project Meson has released a version 1.11.0. The release took place on April 13, 2026 and continues the development of one of the most prominent free build systems, used in many Linux and cross-platform projects.
Meson traditionally focuses on high speed, predictable build descriptions, and a relatively simple DSL, while the new release mainly focuses on practical improvements for real development scenarios.
Key changes in Meson 1.11.0:
- support for parsing top-level Cargo.toml via workspace() in the Rust module;
- support for link_args, add_project_link_arguments(), and add_global_link_arguments() for Rust;
- new method compiler_target() in the Rust module;
- Cython no longer requires explicit inclusion of C or C++;
- new link_early_args argument for earlier passing of options to the linker;
- meson dist has gained support for -j/—num-processes;
- install_man and install_headers now support install_tag;
- deduplication of OpenMP linker arguments;
- automatic detection of QT_DEBUG and QT_NO_DEBUG;
- improvements for Windows environments and rc.exe.
One of the most notable changes concerns Rust. Meson 1.11.0 learned to parse top-level Cargo.toml when calling workspace() in the Rust module, allowing dependencies and feature flags to be resolved according to the Cargo workspace configuration. This makes integration with Rust projects noticeably more mature: the returned workspace object allows retrieval of dependency and feature information for Cargo subprojects and enables building targets described in Cargo.toml.
Developers have also expanded Meson's handling of Rust during the linking stage. Starting with version 1.11.0, add_project_link_arguments(), add_global_link_arguments(), and link_args are supported for Rust, passed through rustc with the wrapper -Clink-arg=. Additionally, a new method compiler_target() has appeared in the Rust module, returning the compiler's target triple, simplifying the transfer of scenarios that were previously tied to Cargo variables like TARGET and HOST.
Another practical change affects Cython: it no longer requires explicit inclusion of languages C or C++. Meson notes that such languages are added only as an internal implementation detail of Cython, not as a full-featured capability to build regular native C/C++ targets in parallel. For users, this primarily simplifies build configuration.
The release includes improvements designed for finer control over linking and installation. For targets performing linking, a new argument link_early_args has been introduced, allowing options to be passed to the linker before objects and libraries — this is important for parameters like -u or —defsym, which are order-sensitive. Additionally, install_man and install_headers now support install_tag, enabling more flexible management of installed files via meson install —tags.
It is also worth noting the development of build maintenance tools. The meson dist command now accepts -j and —num-processes, allowing control over the number of parallel processes when checking the distribution. At the same time, Meson has begun deduplicating OpenMP linker arguments such as -fopenmp and -qopenmp, and in Qt modules, the QT_DEBUG or QT_NO_DEBUG macros are now automatically defined based on the build mode, bringing behavior closer to qmake.
There are also changes in compatibility with specific platform scenarios. In the external_project module for Windows, cygpath is now used to correctly transform paths to a Unix-like format when working with configure scripts in environments like MSYS2 and Cygwin. Additionally, windows.compile_resources can now track header changes when using rc.exe, overcoming a long-standing limitation of this resource compiler.
Overall Meson 1.11.0 It looks like a release without loud revolutions but with a noticeable amount of engineering-significant improvements. The main aim of the release is to make the build system more convenient for modern mixed-language projects, especially where Rust, Cython, Qt, and traditional C/C++ components coexist. For developers, this is not so much a reason to rewrite infrastructure but rather a careful yet useful update of a tool that has long been part of the everyday stack of free software.
Source: linux.org.ru
