Linux

June 4, 2026 · View on GitHub

Status: The Linux build is currently broken and Linux is not a validated runtime target. The notes below describe what would be needed to make it work and what to expect from zig build run today.

What works

  • The Lua API surface — every namespace documented in Reference is platform-neutral.
  • Config files using the same syntax as Windows; the personal config location is $XDG_CONFIG_HOME/hollow/init.lua or $HOME/.config/hollow/init.lua.
  • The shipped base config falls back to a unix domain that uses hollow.platform.default_shell.

What does not work

  • The renderer. The Linux build is currently broken and zig build run is not expected to succeed. The README's "Linux build prerequisites" call this out explicitly.
  • There is no packaged Linux release.
  • The WSL bypass helper runs on Linux, but the helper alone is not a terminal — you need the Windows host to drive it.

If you want to fix the Linux build

The dependency list in the project README is the starting point:

sudo apt install -y libx11-dev libxi-dev libxcursor-dev \
  libgl1-mesa-dev libasound2-dev pkg-config

These provide the -lX11 -lXi -lXcursor -lGL -lasound libraries required by the linker.

After the build is restored, the runtime surface should mostly mirror the macOS plan in the next file: macOS.

See also