Cross-Compiling with JuliaC

Goal

To use JuliaC.jl to compile an application from x86_64 for aarch64.

Prerequisites

I am using Archlinux for this and currently the method of cross compilation only works on Linux.

I had to install:

• aarch64-linux-gnu-glibc

• aarch64-linux-gnu-gcc

• qemu-user

• qemu-user-binfmt

Julia

We also need a Julia build for aarch64, you can get one from https://julialang.org/downloads/manual-downloads/

The meat and potatoes

Project

[deps]
JuliaC = "acedd4c2-ced6-4a15-accc-2607eb759ba2"

[compat]
JuliaC = "0.3"

cross_compiling.jl

const julia_aarch64 = `julia-1.12.5/bin/julia`

qemu_aarch64() = `qemu-aarch64`

function run_aarch64(cmd)
    qemu = addenv(qemu_aarch64(), 
        "QEMU_LD_PREFIX" =>"/usr/aarch64-linux-gnu/",
        "JULIA_CC" => "aarch64-linux-gnu-gcc",
    )
    run(`$(qemu) $(cmd)`)
end

run_aarch64(`$(julia_aarch64) -e "using InteractiveUtils; versioninfo()"`)
run_aarch64(`$(julia_aarch64) --project=. -e "import Pkg; Pkg.instantiate(); Pkg.precompile()"`)


juliac(args) = run_aarch64(`$(julia_aarch64) --project=. -e "using JuliaC; JuliaC.main(ARGS)" -- $(args)`)
cc(app) = juliac(`--output-exe app --bundle build_aarch64 --trim=unsafe-warn --experimental $(app)`)

cc(ARGS[0])

Running it:

julia +1.12 --project=. crosscompiling.jl TestApp

file build_aarch64/bin/app 
build_aarch64/bin/app: ELF 64-bit LSB pie executable, ARM aarch64, version 1 (SYSV), dynamically linked, interpreter /lib/ld-linux-aarch64.so.1, BuildID[sha1]=9b424857d2614c45cf0dec8fd97d99443e4a54c9, for GNU/Linux 3.7.0, with debug_info, not stripped

QEMU_LD_PREFIX=/usr/aarch64-linux-gnu/ ./build_aarch64/bin/app
LEDCube AppTest starting...
Connecting to LEDCube server at 127.0.0.1:2017

@misc{churavy2026:crosscompiling,
  author       = {Churavy, Valentin},
  title        = {Cross-Compiling with JuliaC},
  year         = {2026},
  date         = {2026-04-05},
  url          = {https://vchuravy.dev/notes/2026/04/cross_compiling/},
}