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dart compile

Use the dart compile command to compile a Dart program to a target platform. The output—which you specify using a subcommand—can either include a Dart runtime or be a module (also known as a snapshot).

Here's an example of using the exe subcommand to produce a self-contained executable file (myapp.exe):

$ dart compile exe bin/myapp.dart
Generated: /Users/me/myapp/bin/myapp.exe

The next example uses the aot-snapshot subcommand to produce an ahead-of-time (AOT) compiled module (myapp.aot). It then uses the dartaotruntime command (which provides a Dart runtime) to run the AOT module:

$ dart compile aot-snapshot bin/myapp.dart
Generated: /Users/me/myapp/bin/myapp.aot
$ dartaotruntime bin/myapp.aot

To specify the path to the output file, use the -o or --output option:

$ dart compile exe bin/myapp.dart -o bin/runme

For more options and usage information, run dart compile [<subcommand>] --help:

$ dart compile exe --help

The dart compile command replaces the dart2native, dart2aot, and dart2js commands.

Refer to the native_app sample for a simple example of using dart compile to compile a native app, followed by examples of running the app.

Subcommands

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The following table shows the subcommands of dart compile.

SubcommandOutputMore information
exeSelf-contained executableA standalone, architecture-specific executable file containing the source code compiled to machine code and a small Dart runtime.
Learn more.
aot-snapshotAOT moduleAn architecture-specific file containing the source code compiled to machine code, but no Dart runtime.
Learn more.
jit-snapshotJIT moduleAn architecture-specific file with an intermediate representation of all source code, plus an optimized representation of the source code that executed during a training run of the program. JIT-compiled code can have faster peak performance than AOT code if the training data is good.
Learn more.
kernelKernel moduleA portable, intermediate representation of the source code.
Learn more.
jsJavaScriptA deployable JavaScript file, compiled from the source code.
Learn more.
wasmWebAssemblyA portable, binary instruction format for a stack-based virtual machine. Currently under development.
Learn more.

Types of output

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The following sections have details about each type of output that dart compile can produce.

Self-contained executables (exe)

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The exe subcommand produces a standalone executable for Windows, macOS, or Linux. A standalone executable is native machine code that's compiled from the specified Dart file and its dependencies, plus a small Dart runtime that handles type checking and garbage collection.

You can distribute and run the output file like you would any other executable file.

Compile your app and set the output file:

$ dart compile exe bin/myapp.dart -o /tmp/myapp

When successful, this command outputs the following:

Generated: /tmp/myapp

Run your compiled app from the /tmp directory:

$ ./tmp/myapp

Signing

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Executables created with dart compile exe support signing on macOS and Windows.

To learn more about platform-specific code signing, see the platform documentation for those operating systems:

Known limitations

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The exe subcommand has some known limitations:

No cross-compilation support (issue 28617)
The compiler can create machine code only for the operating system on which you're compiling. To create executables for macOS, Windows, and Linux, you need to run the compiler three times. You can also use a continuous integration (CI) provider that supports all three operating systems.
No support for dart:mirrors and dart:developer
For a complete list of the core libraries you can use, see the Multi-platform and Native platform library tables.

AOT modules (aot-snapshot)

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Use AOT modules to reduce disk space requirements when distributing multiple command-line apps. The aot-snapshot subcommand produces an output file specific to the current architecture on which you compile your app.

For example, if you use macOS to create a .aot file, then that file can run on macOS only. Dart supports AOT modules on Windows, macOS, and Linux.

$ dart compile aot-snapshot bin/myapp.dart
Generated: /Users/me/myapp/bin/myapp.aot
$ dartaotruntime bin/myapp.aot

The aot-snapshot subcommand has some known limitations.

No cross-compilation support (issue 28617)
The compiler can create machine code only for the operating system on which you're compiling. To create executables for macOS, Windows, and Linux, you need to run the compiler three times. You can also use a continuous integration (CI) provider that supports all three operating systems.
No support for dart:mirrors and dart:developer
For a complete list of the core libraries you can use, see the Multi-platform and Native platform library tables.

To learn more, see the dartaotruntime documentation.

JIT modules (jit-snapshot)

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JIT modules include all the parsed classes and compiled code that's generated during a training run of a program.

$ dart compile jit-snapshot bin/myapp.dart
Compiling bin/myapp.dart to jit-snapshot file bin/myapp.jit.
Hello world!
$ dart run bin/myapp.jit
Hello world!

When running from an application module, the Dart VM doesn't need to parse or compile classes and functions that were already used during the training run, so the VM starts running user code sooner.

These modules are architecture specific, unlike modules produced using the kernel subcommand.

Portable modules (kernel)

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Use the kernel subcommand to package up an app into a single, portable file that can be run on all operating systems and CPU architectures. A kernel module contains a binary form of the abstract syntax tree (Kernel AST) for a Dart program.

Here's an example of creating and running a kernel module:

$ dart compile kernel bin/myapp.dart
Compiling bin/myapp.dart to kernel file bin/myapp.dill.
$ dart run bin/myapp.dill

Although kernel modules have reduced startup time compared to Dart code, they can have much slower startup than architecture-specific AOT output formats.

JavaScript (js)

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The js subcommand compiles Dart code to deployable JavaScript.

Options

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The dart compile js command has multiple options to customize javascript code compilation.

Basic options
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Common options include:

-o <file> or --output=<file>

Generates the output into <file>. If not specified, the output goes in a file named out.js.

--enable-asserts

Enables assertion checking.

-O{0|1|2|3|4}

Controls optimizations to reduce file size and improve code performance. To learn more about these optimizations, run dart compile js -hv.

  • -O0: Disables many optimizations.

  • -O1: Enables default optimizations.

  • -O2: Enables -O1 optimizations, plus additional ones (such as minification) that respect the language semantics and are safe for all programs.

  • -O3: Enables -O2 optimizations, plus omits implicit type checks.

  • -O4: Enables more aggressive optimizations than -O3, but with the same assumptions.

--no-source-maps

Do not generate a source map file.

-h or --help

Displays help. To get information about all options, use -hv.

Path and environment options
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Some other handy options include:

--packages=<path>
Specifies the path to the package resolution configuration file. For more information, check out the Dart package configuration file specification.
-D<flag>=<value>
Defines an environment declaration and value pair which can be accessed with String.fromEnvironment, int.fromEnvironment, bool.fromEnvironment, or bool.hasEnvironment. To learn more about environment declarations, see Configuring apps with compilation environment declarations.
--version
Displays version information for dart.
Display options
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The following options help you control the compiler output.

--suppress-warnings
Doesn't display warnings.
--suppress-hints
Doesn't display hints.
--terse
Emits diagnostics, without suggesting how to get rid of the diagnosed problems.
-v or --verbose
Displays lots of information.
Analysis options
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The following options control the analysis performed on Dart code.

--fatal-warnings
Treat warnings as compilation errors.
--enable-diagnostic-colors
Adds colors to diagnostic messages.
--show-package-warnings
Shows warnings and hints generated from packages.
--csp
Disables dynamic generation of code in the generated output. This is necessary to satisfy CSP restrictions (see W3C Content Security Policy.)
--dump-info
Generates a file (with the suffix .info.json) that contains information about the generated code. You can inspect the generated file with tools in dart2js_info.

Compiling web app example

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For example, to compile a Dart application to optimized JavaScript, run the following command:

$ dart compile js -O2 -o out/main.js web/main.dart

Improving production web compilation

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Follow these practices to improve type inference, reduce file size, and improve JavaScript performance:

  • Don't use Function.apply().
  • Don't override noSuchMethod().
  • Avoid setting variables to null.
  • Be consistent with the types of arguments you pass into each function or method.

To learn more about building and deploying JavaScript applications, check out Web deployment.