lightning ☆
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Description:
Generates assembly language code at run-time
Type: Formula  |  Tracked Since: Dec 28, 2025
Links: Homepage  |  formulae.brew.sh
Category: Developer tools
Tags: compiler jit assembly library code-generation
Install: brew install lightning
About:
GNU Lightning is a library that abstracts the differences between various CPU architectures, providing a uniform API for generating machine code at run-time. It supports a wide range of processors and can generate code for different architectures from the same program. This makes it an ideal back-end for Just-In-Time (JIT) compilers.
Key Features:
  • Architecture-independent API for code generation
  • Supports a wide variety of CPUs (RISC, CISC, etc.)
  • Generates efficient, native machine code at run-time
  • Simple instruction set designed for JIT compilation
Use Cases:
  • Building Just-In-Time (JIT) compilers for new languages
  • Creating dynamic code generators within applications
  • Developing emulators or virtual machines
Alternatives:
  • libgccjit – Part of GCC, provides a JIT API but is tied to the GCC toolchain and ecosystem.
  • LLVM – A more complex and powerful compiler infrastructure, offering higher-level optimizations but with a significantly larger footprint and complexity.
Version History
Detected Version Rev Change Commit
Sep 16, 2025 10:59am 1 VERSION_BUMP 3700b554
Oct 22, 2024 12:14am 1 VERSION_BUMP 5b691fb4
Sep 14, 2024 2:20pm 1 VERSION_BUMP 7b98a2a9
Feb 17, 2023 11:03pm 0 VERSION_BUMP c0f39b04
Feb 17, 2023 11:03pm 0 VERSION_BUMP 71f4c9cd
Dec 3, 2022 9:17pm 0 VERSION_BUMP c9768296
Nov 20, 2022 11:04am 0 VERSION_BUMP 42794268
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