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+---
+title: D
+short-description: Compiling D sources
+...
+
+# Compiling D applications
+
+Meson has support for compiling D programs. A minimal `meson.build` file for D looks like this:
+
+```meson
+project('myapp', 'd')
+
+executable('myapp', 'app.d')
+```
+
+## Compiling different versions
+
+If you are using the [version()](https://dlang.org/spec/version.html) feature for conditional compilation, you can use it using the `d_module_versions`
+target property:
+```meson
+project('myapp', 'd')
+executable('myapp', 'app.d', d_module_versions: ['Demo', 'FeatureA'])
+```
+
+## Using embedded unittests
+
+If you are using embedded [unittest functions](https://dlang.org/spec/unittest.html), your source code needs to be compiled twice, once in regular
+mode, and once with unittests active. This is done by setting the `d_unittest` target property to `true`.
+Meson will only ever pass the respective compiler's `-unittest` flag, and never have the compiler generate an empty main function.
+If you need that feature in a portable way, create an empty `main()` function for unittests yourself, since the GNU D compiler
+does not have this feature.
+
+This is an example for using D unittests with Meson:
+```meson
+project('myapp_tested', 'd')
+
+myapp_src = ['app.d', 'alpha.d', 'beta.d']
+executable('myapp', myapp_src)
+
+test_exe = executable('myapp_test', myapp_src, d_unittest: true)
+test('myapptest', test_exe)
+```
+
+# Compiling D libraries and installing them
+
+Building D libraries is a straightforward process, not different from how C libraries are built in Meson. You should generate a pkg-config file
+and install it, in order to make other software on the system find the dependency once it is installed.
+
+This is an example on how to build a D shared library:
+```meson
+project('mylib', 'd', version: '1.2.0')
+
+project_soversion = 0
+glib_dep = dependency('glib-2.0')
+
+my_lib = library('mylib',
+ ['src/mylib/libfunctions.d'],
+ dependencies: [glib_dep],
+ install: true,
+ version: meson.project_version(),
+ soversion: project_soversion,
+ d_module_versions: ['FeatureA', 'featureB']
+)
+pkgc.generate(name: 'mylib',
+ libraries: my_lib,
+ subdirs: 'd/mylib',
+ version: meson.project_version(),
+ description: 'A simple example D library.',
+ d_module_versions: ['FeatureA']
+)
+install_subdir('src/mylib/', install_dir: 'include/d/mylib/')
+```
+
+It is important to make the D sources install in a subdirectory in the include path, in this case `/usr/include/d/mylib/mylib`.
+All D compilers include the `/usr/include/d` directory by default, and if your library would be installed into `/usr/include/d/mylib`, there
+is a high chance that, when you compile your project again on a machine where you installed it, the compiler will prefer the old installed include over
+the new version in the source tree, leading to very confusing errors.
+
+This is an example of how to use the D library we just built and installed in an application:
+```meson
+project('myapp', 'd')
+
+mylib_dep = dependency('mylib', version: '>= 1.2.0')
+myapp_src = ['app.d', 'alpha.d', 'beta.d']
+executable('myapp', myapp_src, dependencies: [mylib_dep])
+```
+
+Please keep in mind that the library and executable would both need to be built with the exact same D compiler and D compiler version. The D ABI is not
+stable across compilers and their versions, and mixing compilers will lead to problems.