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+# Cross and Native File reference
+
+Cross and native files are nearly identical, but not completely. This is the
+documentation on the common values used by both, for the specific values of
+one or the other see the [cross compilation](Cross-compilation.md) and [native
+environments](Native-environments.md).
+
+## Sections
+
+The following sections are allowed:
+- binaries
+- paths
+- properties
+
+### Binaries
+
+The binaries section contains a list of binaries. These can be used
+internally by meson, or by the `find_program` function:
+
+Compilers and linkers are defined here using `<lang>` and `<lang>_ld`.
+`<lang>_ld` is special because it is compiler specific. For compilers like
+gcc and clang which are used to invoke the linker this is a value to pass to
+their "choose the linker" argument (-fuse-ld= in this case). For compilers
+like MSVC and Clang-Cl, this is the path to a linker for meson to invoke,
+such as `link.exe` or `lld-link.exe`. Support for ls is *new in 0.53.0*
+
+*changed in 0.53.1* the `ld` variable was replaced by `<lang>_ld`, because it
+*regressed a large number of projects. in 0.53.0 the `ld` variable was used
+instead.
+
+Native example:
+
+```ini
+c = '/usr/bin/clang'
+c_ld = 'lld'
+sed = 'C:\\program files\\gnu\\sed.exe'
+llvm-config = '/usr/lib/llvm8/bin/llvm-config'
+```
+
+Cross example:
+
+```ini
+c = '/usr/bin/i586-mingw32msvc-gcc'
+cpp = '/usr/bin/i586-mingw32msvc-g++'
+c_ld = 'gold'
+cpp_ld = 'gold'
+ar = '/usr/i586-mingw32msvc/bin/ar'
+strip = '/usr/i586-mingw32msvc/bin/strip'
+pkgconfig = '/usr/bin/i586-mingw32msvc-pkg-config'
+```
+
+An incomplete list of internally used programs that can be overridden here is:
+- cmake
+- cups-config
+- gnustep-config
+- gpgme-config
+- libgcrypt-config
+- libwmf-config
+- llvm-config
+- pcap-config
+- pkgconfig
+- sdl2-config
+- wx-config (or wx-3.0-config or wx-config-gtk)
+
+### Paths and Directories
+
+As of 0.50.0 paths and directories such as libdir can be defined in the native
+file in a paths section
+
+```ini
+[paths]
+libdir = 'mylibdir'
+prefix = '/my prefix'
+```
+
+These values will only be loaded when not cross compiling. Any arguments on the
+command line will override any options in the native file. For example, passing
+`--libdir=otherlibdir` would result in a prefix of `/my prefix` and a libdir of
+`otherlibdir`.
+
+### Properties
+
+*New in native files in 0.54.0*, always in cross files.
+
+In addition to special data that may be specified in cross files, this
+section may contain random key value pairs accessed using the
+`meson.get_external_property()`
+
+## Properties
+
+*New for native files in 0.54.0*
+
+The properties section can contain any variable you like, and is accessed via
+`meson.get_external_property`, or `meson.get_cross_property`.
+
+## Loading multiple machine files
+
+Native files allow layering (cross files can be layered since meson 0.52.0).
+More than one native file can be loaded, with values from a previous file being
+overridden by the next. The intention of this is not overriding, but to allow
+composing native files. This composition is done by passing the command line
+argument multiple times:
+
+```console
+meson setup builddir/ --cross-file first.ini --cross-file second.ini --cross-file thrid.ini
+```
+
+In this case `first.ini` will be loaded, then `second.ini`, with values from
+`second.ini` replacing `first.ini`, and so on.
+
+For example, if there is a project using C and C++, python 3.4-3.7, and LLVM
+5-7, and it needs to build with clang 5, 6, and 7, and gcc 5.x, 6.x, and 7.x;
+expressing all of these configurations in monolithic configurations would
+result in 81 different native files. By layering them, it can be expressed by
+just 12 native files.