Minimal build.zig for targeting iOS with Zig toolchain.

In all cases, regardless if you are cross-compiling from macOS or a different host such as Linux, you will need to provide the appropriate Apple SDK such as iphoneos if targeting hardware devices or iphonesimulator if targeting the simulator.

In order to install the SDK for targeting iOS, install Xcode with all components. Then, all you need to do is specify the target. For iPhoneOS that would be

zig build -Dtarget=aarch64-ios

while for the iPhoneSimulator

zig build -Dtarget=aarch64-ios-simulator

When building on a foreign host, Zig will not autodetect the path to the SDK as it does on macOS, so you will need to provide the path manually using the --sysroot flag

zig build --sysroot <path_to_sdk> -Dtarget=aarch64-ios-simulator

Fire up the simulator, and then install the app with

xcrun simctl install booted zig-out/bin/MadeWithZig.app

You can run the app with

xcrun simctl launch booted madewithzig