#sbt-cross

A better solution for building multiple Scala versions (cross compiling) in SBT.

Purpose

SBT's crossScalaVersions allows projects to compile with multiple versions of Scala.

However, crossScalaVersions is a hack that reuses projects by mutates settings. This causes problems:

1. Performance - Each Scala version is handled sequentially (not in parallel).
2. Subprojects - Project classpath dependencies can be tricky.
3. Aggregation - Aggregation doesn't take into account crossScalaVersions of subprojects, hence sbt-doge.
4. Cross paths - Very many tasks don't play nicely. E.g. if you use sbt-native-packager and +debian:packageBin, you'll build two debs on top of each other.
5. General funniness - For example, sbt-sonatype requires extra wrangling to work with crossScalaVersions.

sbt-cross solves all by simply splitting projects: one for each version of Scala. This works with SBT's core project/task system, rather than fighting it.

Install

Requires SBT 0.13+.

In project/plugins.sbt, add

addSbtPlugin("com.lucidchart" % "sbt-cross" % "3.0")

For the latest development version,

resolvers += Resolver.sonatypeRepo("snapshots")

addSbtPlugin("com.lucidchart" % "sbt-cross" % "master-SNAPSHOT")

Example

Suppose there is a project pipers that uses Scala 2.11, a project drummers that uses Scala 2.12, and they depend on a project instruments, which compiles with both Scala versions.

This cannot be done with crossScalaVersions, but it can with sbt-cross.

lazy val pipers = project.dependsOn(instruments_2_11).settings(scalaVersion := "2.11.8")
lazy val drummers = project.dependsOn(instruments_2_12).settings(scalaVersion := "2.12.1")

lazy val instruments = project.cross
lazy val instruments_2_11 = instruments("2.11.8")
lazy val instruments_2_12 = instruments("2.12.1")

This defines four projects: pipers, drummers, instruments-2_11, and instruments-2_12.

SBT will concurrently compile the right ones in the right order.

• sbt pipers/compile will compile instruments_2_11 then pipers.

• sbt drummers/compile will compile instruments_2_12 then drummers.

• sbt compile will compile instruments_2_11 then pipers and, in parallel, instruments_2_12 then drummers.

See examples for more.

Additional crossing

sbt-cross generalizes this approach to other any cross-compilation-like use. You can even chain cross versions. There is currently no documentation for this, but LibraryVersionAxis is an example.

Contributions

We welcome issues, questions, and contributions on our GitHub project (https://github.com/lucidsoftware/sbt-cross).