[Scope]: Support powerpc (32-/64-bit) and riscv64

[barracuda156]

Summary

Arturo is unaware of archs aside of x86/arm

Current Behavior

The build system hardcodes archs to x86/arm:

arturo/build.nims

Lines 444 to 445 in 5b9d2cf

	availableCPUs = @["amd-64", "x64", "x86-64", "arm-64", "i386", "x86",
	"x86-32", "arm", "arm-32"]

Expected Behavior

All archs supported by Nim should be supported by Arturo.

Steps To Reproduce

Run the build, see it fail.

OS

macOS / Linux / *BSD

Version

0.10.0

Anything else?

No response

Is there an existing issue for this?

• I have searched the existing issues

[github-actions]

Thank you for submitting an issue! :)

[drkameleon]

Hi!

Thanks a lot for the suggestion - really appreciate you taking the time to look at Arturo's build system. 😉

Right now, there are quite a few leftovers in our build script (basically, it appears there are far more "options" than there actually are; even what you mention above is an example of that: what we really support is 64-bit AMD/ARM), so, we are in the process of cleaning things up, so that it reflects the current state of build options.

Also, we are in the process of ... "simplifying" things and focusing on architectures where we can reliably build, test, and distribute binaries through our CI/CD pipeline. (what Github actions natively supports is also a big plus, needless to say). Actually, we have - consciously - removed support for some things (e.g. 32-bit architectures altogether), since maintaining them is not a trivial task by any means, it ends up cluttering our codebase and the cost-benefit doesn't really add up, if you know what I mean... (esp. when we're still working on solidifying our core platform support)

That being said, by principle, I'm always in favor of extending our platform support, which is why I like this issue as a future... reminder. Once we reach a place where our current platform is even more solid and/or there is actual demand from our user base, for either PPC or RISC, I would gladly revisit this! 😉

[barracuda156]

@drkameleon Thank you for responding. I understand that end-users of 32-bit archs aren’t many, but there is a value to support 32-bit (and non-mainstream archs), it allows to catch bugs which otherwise go unnoticed.

Those availableCPUs does not seem to do anything much anyway, flags can be passed directly. Build fails on this:

--->  Building arturo
Hint: used config file '/opt/local/libexec/nim/config/nim.cfg' [Conf]
Hint: used config file '/opt/local/libexec/nim/config/config.nims' [Conf]
Hint: used config file '/opt/local/var/macports/build/arturo-cad6246b/work/arturo-0.10.0/config.nims' [Conf]
TERM environment variable not set.
================================================================================

                               _                                     
                              | |                                    
                     __ _ _ __| |_ _   _ _ __ ___                    
                    / _` | '__| __| | | | '__/ _ \                   
                   | (_| | |  | |_| |_| | | | (_) |                  
                    \__,_|_|   \__|\__,_|_|  \___/                   
                                          
                     Arturo Programming Language       
                      (c)2026 Yanis Zafirópulos                      
                                                                     
================================================================================
 ► INSTALL
================================================================================

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 ● Checking environment...
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
  os: macosx
  compiler: Nim v2.2.6

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 ● Compilation
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
  version: 0.10.0
  @ 0
  
  config: @full
  flags: --define:GMP --define:useOpenssl3 --passC:-I/opt/local/libexec/openssl3/include --passC:-I/opt/local/include --passL:-L/opt/local/libexec/openssl3/lib --passL:-L/opt/local/lib --passL:-Wl,-rpath,/opt/local/lib --passL:-Wl,-headerpad_max_install_names --define:ssl --define:DOCGEN

Hint: used config file '/opt/local/libexec/nim/config/nim.cfg' [Conf]
Hint: used config file '/opt/local/libexec/nim/config/config.nims' [Conf]
Hint: used config file '/opt/local/var/macports/build/arturo-cad6246b/work/arturo-0.10.0/config.nims' [Conf]
.........................................................................................................................................................................................................
stack trace: (most recent call last)
definitions.nim(144, 5)  vquantity
preprocessor.nim(255, 39) defUnit
preprocessor.nim(200, 23) parseQuantity
preprocessor.nim(195, 34) parseValue
rationals.nim(114, 16)   toRational
rationals.nim(70, 18)    //
rationals.nim(62, 9)     initRational
rationals.nim(44, 5)     reduce
/opt/local/libexec/nim/lib/pure/rationals.nim(44, 5) Error: unhandled exception: division by zero [DivByZeroDefect]
stack trace: (most recent call last)
cli.nims(210, 24)
build.nims(532, 11)      buildTask
build.nims(317, 9)       buildArturo
build.nims(309, 15)      main
build.nims(296, 28)      tryCompilation
build.nims(211, 12)      compile
nimscript.nim(264, 7)    exec
/opt/local/libexec/nim/lib/system/nimscript.nim(264, 7) Error: unhandled exception: FAILED: nim c --define:GMP --define:useOpenssl3 --passC:-I/opt/local/libexec/openssl3/include --passC:-I/opt/local/include --passL:-L/opt/local/libexec/openssl3/lib --passL:-L/opt/local/lib --passL:-Wl,-rpath,/opt/local/lib --passL:-Wl,-headerpad_max_install_names --define:ssl --define:DOCGEN -o:bin/arturo src/arturo.nim [OSError]
Command failed: PATH=./bins:$PATH ./build.nims --cpu:ppc --define:bit32 --log
Exit code: 1