On the recordRead 11 Oct 202621 facts
Ninja
Plans and prices
Ninja
Free
Small build system focused on speed · downloadable binary or build from source
Read 11 Oct 2026 · ninja-build.org
On the record
- Build behavior
- Builds run in parallel by default, using the number of CPUs on the system.ninja-build.org · read 11 Oct 2026
- Dependencies
- Ninja supports discovering extra dependencies at build time, including C and C++ header dependencies.ninja-build.org · read 11 Oct 2026
- Dependency handling
- Ninja supports discovering C/C++ header dependencies from compiler-generated dependency information.ninja-build.org · read 11 Oct 2026
- Designed use
- Ninja is intended to work with a separate program that generates its input files.ninja-build.org · read 11 Oct 2026
- Download
- Official prebuilt binaries are available for Linux, Mac, and Windows, and the project also documents installation through package managers.github.com · read 11 Oct 2026
- Downloads
- The project README says binaries are available for Linux, Mac, and Windows.github.com · read 11 Oct 2026
- Generated inputs
- Ninja is designed for a higher-level build system to generate its input files, which are human-readable but not especially convenient to write by hand.ninja-build.org · read 11 Oct 2026
- How it works
- Ninja takes file interdependencies as input and runs the commands needed to build targets.ninja-build.org · read 11 Oct 2026
- Incremental builds
- Ninja aims for very fast incremental builds, including for very large projects.ninja-build.org · read 11 Oct 2026
- Integrations
- GN and CMake can generate Ninja files; the manual also names Premake as a possible fit.ninja-build.org · read 11 Oct 2026
- License
- The project repository identifies its license as Apache-2.0.github.com · read 11 Oct 2026
- Notable limit
- Ninja has no built-in rules, such as rules for compiling C code.ninja-build.org · read 11 Oct 2026
- Notable limits
- Ninja has no built-in rules, little syntax for hand-written build files, and no build-time customization or decision-making features such as conditionals.ninja-build.org · read 11 Oct 2026
- Parallel builds
- Builds run in parallel by default, based on the number of CPUs on the system.ninja-build.org · read 11 Oct 2026
- Platform support
- The manual says Ninja works on Unix-like systems and Windows, and runs on Mac OS X and FreeBSD; it has seen the most testing on Linux.ninja-build.org · read 11 Oct 2026
- Purpose
- Ninja is a small build system designed to evaluate incremental builds quickly.ninja-build.org · read 11 Oct 2026
- Release
- The project site identifies v1.13.1, released 10 July 2025, as the last Ninja release.ninja-build.org · read 11 Oct 2026
- Standalone executable
- The project README describes Ninja as a standalone executable rather than a library, with no public API.github.com · read 11 Oct 2026
