Nim README

The project's README from github.com/nim-lang/Nim. As one markdown file: README.md.

Nim

Build Status

This repository contains the Nim compiler, Nim's stdlib, tools, and documentation. For more information about Nim, including downloads and documentation for the latest release, check out Nim's website or bleeding edge docs.

Community

Join the IRC chat Join the Discord server Join the Gitter chat Join the Matrix room Get help View Nim posts on Stack Overflow Follow @nim_lang on Twitter

Compiling

The compiler currently officially supports the following platform and architecture combinations:

Operating System Architectures Supported
Windows (Windows XP or greater) x86 and x86_64
Linux (most distributions) x86, x86_64, ppc64, and armv6l
Mac OS X (10.4 or greater) x86, x86_64, ppc64, and Apple Silicon (ARM64)

More platforms are supported, however, they are not tested regularly and they may not be as stable as the above-listed platforms.

Compiling the Nim compiler is quite straightforward if you follow these steps:

First, the C source of an older version of the Nim compiler is needed to bootstrap the latest version because the Nim compiler itself is written in the Nim programming language. Those C sources are available within the nim-lang/csources_v3 repository.

Next, to build from source you will need:

Windows Note: Cygwin and similar POSIX runtime environments are not supported.

Then, if you are on a *nix system or Windows, the following steps should compile Nim from source using gcc, git, and the koch build tool.

Note: The following commands are for the development version of the compiler. For most users, installing the latest stable version is enough. Check out the installation instructions on the website to do so: https://nim-lang.org/install.html.

For package maintainers: see packaging guidelines.

First, get Nim from GitHub:

git clone https://github.com/nim-lang/Nim.git
cd Nim

Next, run the appropriate build shell script for your platform:

Finally, once you have finished the build steps (on Windows, Mac, or Linux) you should add the bin directory to your PATH.

See also bootstrapping the compiler.

See also reproducible builds.

Koch

koch is the build tool used to build various parts of Nim and to generate documentation and the website, among other things. The koch tool can also be used to run the Nim test suite.

Assuming that you added Nim's bin directory to your PATH, you may execute the tests using ./koch tests. The tests take a while to run, but you can run a subset of tests by specifying a category (for example ./koch tests cat async).

For more information on the koch build tool please see the documentation within the doc/koch.md file.

Nimble

nimble is Nim's package manager. To learn more about it, see the nim-lang/nimble repository.

Contributors

This project exists thanks to all the people who contribute.

Contributing

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See detailed contributing guidelines. We welcome all contributions to Nim regardless of how small or large they are. Everything from spelling fixes to new modules to be included in the standard library are welcomed and appreciated. Before you start contributing, you should familiarize yourself with the following repository structure:

If you are not familiar with making a pull request using GitHub and/or git, please read this guide.

Ideally, you should make sure that all tests pass before submitting a pull request. However, if you are short on time, you can just run the tests specific to your changes by only running the corresponding categories of tests. CI verifies that all tests pass before allowing the pull request to be accepted, so only running specific tests should be harmless. Integration tests should go in tests/untestable.

If you're looking for ways to contribute, please look at our issue tracker. There are always plenty of issues labeled Easy; these should be a good starting point for an initial contribution to Nim.

You can also help with the development of Nim by making donations. Donations can be made using:

If you have any questions feel free to submit a question on the Nim forum, or via IRC on the #nim channel.

Backers

Thank you to all our backers! [Become a backer]

Sponsors

Support this project by becoming a sponsor. Your logo will show up here with a link to your website. [Become a sponsor]

You can also see a list of all our sponsors/backers from various payment services on the sponsors page of our website.

License

The compiler and the standard library are licensed under the MIT license, except for some modules which explicitly state otherwise. As a result, you may use any compatible license (essentially any license) for your own programs developed with Nim. You are explicitly permitted to develop commercial applications using Nim.

Please read the copying.txt file for more details.

Copyright © 2006-2026 Andreas Rumpf, all rights reserved.

Nim (nim-lang/Nim)

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18.3K ·GitHub
Nim
What is this?Nim is a statically typed, compiled systems programming language that blends ideas from Python, Ada and Modula, prioritizing efficiency, expressiveness and elegance. This repository holds the Nim compiler, standard library, tools and documentation.
Is Nim a language I compile to native binaries, or does it run on a VM like the JVM?Nim compiles to native code; the compiler itself bootstraps by generating C sources from an older Nim compiler and then compiling with a C compiler like gcc or clang.
What do I need installed before compiling Nim myself?You need a C compiler (gcc 6.x+, clang, Visual C++ or Intel C++) and either git or wget to fetch source repos; on Windows, MinGW 4.3.0 (GCC 8.10) or later is the minimum recommended, and Cygwin-style environments aren't supported.
Which platforms are officially supported vs just community-tested?Officially supported combos are Windows (x86/x86_64), Linux (x86, x86_64, ppc64, armv6l) and macOS (x86, x86_64, ppc64, Apple Silicon ARM64); other platforms exist but aren't regularly tested and may be less stable.
What is Nimble?Nimble is Nim's official package manager, maintained in a separate nim-lang/nimble repository, used to install and manage third-party Nim packages.
What is Koch and how do I run the test suite?Koch is the build tool used to compile parts of Nim, generate docs and the website, and run the test suite via ./koch tests, with optional category filtering like ./koch tests cat async.
How is the repository organized?compiler/ holds the compiler source (plus nimsuggest), lib/ holds the standard library (pure, impure, wrappers subfolders), doc/ holds reStructuredText docs, and tests/ holds categorized compiler and stdlib tests.
Where can I ask questions or discuss Nim development?The Nim forum is the main place for questions and discussion, with real-time chat also available on IRC (#nim on Libera Chat), Discord, Gitter, Matrix and Telegram.
What are similar projects?spinel, Odin, elixir, Singeli, rust, crystal, v, carbon-lang
Which topics is it in?procedural, language, build-tool, programming-language, systems-programming, package-manager, compiler, hacktoberfest, performance, terminal, cli, cross-platform
Creator
nim-lang
Size
125.2 MB
Stars
18.3K
Updated
CommitOct 17
Age
16y
Commits · 90 Days