skink

The self-hosted Skink compiler, written in Skink itself. This is the canonical compiler toolset — no Go or other bootstrapping language is required once the initial binary is installed.

Quick Install

Install the latest release from GitHub:

curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/markoxley/skink/main/install.sh | bash

This downloads the skink compiler, skink-lsp language server, skinkfmt formatter, scales package manager, skinkjs JavaScript transpiler, and the standard library to ~/.local/skink/, then updates your shell config (.bashrc, .zshrc, etc.) to add them to PATH and set SKINK_HOME.

Install a specific version:

curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/markoxley/skink/main/install.sh | bash -s -- --version 0.2.0

Install to a custom prefix:

curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/markoxley/skink/main/install.sh | bash -s -- --prefix /opt/skink

Skip shell config updates:

curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/markoxley/skink/main/install.sh | bash -s -- --no-shell-rc

After installing, restart your shell (or source ~/.bashrc) and verify:

skink -v

Building from Source

If you already have a skink binary (from the installer or a previous build):

make

This builds the self-hosted compiler using the existing skink binary as the stage-0 compiler. The resulting ./skink binary is a full replacement.

Self-Hosting Verification

make stage2

This compiles skink.skink with the stage-1 binary, verifies the stage-2 binary can type-check itself, and replaces the stage-1 binary with stage-2.

Installation from Source

make install        # builds and installs the toolset to ~/.local/skink
make install-only   # installs pre-built binaries without rebuilding
make uninstall      # removes the toolset and stdlib

This installs skink, skink-lsp, skinkfmt, scales, skinkjs, skink_test.sh, and skink_bench.sh to ~/.local/skink/bin/, plus the standard library and C runtime to ~/.local/skink/std/ — the same layout install.sh uses. Override the root with make SKINK_PREFIX=/opt/skink install.

Project Layout

skink/
├── skink.skink          Compiler driver (main entry point)
├── std/                 Standard library
│   ├── lexer.skink      Lexer
│   ├── parser.skink     Parser
│   ├── resolver.skink   Module/scope resolver
│   ├── checker.skink    Type checker
│   ├── emitter.skink    LLVM IR emitter
│   ├── ast.skink        AST types
│   ├── json.skink       JSON encoding/decoding
│   ├── str.skink        String utilities
│   ├── os.skink         OS/file operations
│   ├── ...              (90+ modules total)
│   └── runtime/         C runtime support files
├── install.sh           Curl install script
├── release.sh           Release packaging script
├── Makefile             Build system
└── version.txt          Version string

License

MIT