Installation, Compilers and Tooling

2.1 Installing

Verify: dmd --version, ldc2 --version, dub --version.

# Official install script (Linux/macOS): installs dmd/ldc/gdc + dub
curl -fsS https://dlang.org/install.sh | bash -s dmd
curl -fsS https://dlang.org/install.sh | bash -s ldc
source ~/dlang/dmd-2.111.0/activate        # activate a toolchain

# Package managers
brew install dmd ldc dub
sudo apt install ldc dub                    # Debian/Ubuntu
winget install dlang.dmd                    # Windows (or the installer from dlang.org)

2.2 Tools

dmd / ldc2 / gdc Compile and run scripts with automatic dependency tracking Package manager and build tool dscanner (D-Scanner) Linter and static analysis serve-d / code-d Language server / VS Code extension ddox / adrdox Test case reducer

Include C/C++ headers directly (#include in D files) Demangle D symbols

2.3 Hello, World

// hello.d
import std.stdio;

void main()
{
    writeln("Hello, World!");
}

dmd hello.d && ./hello
dmd -run hello.d               # compile and run
rdmd hello.d                   # script-style
ldc2 -O3 -release hello.d      # optimized build

2.4 Scripts with Shebang

Single-file DUB scripts can embed dependencies:

#!/usr/bin/env rdmd
import std.stdio;
void main(string[] args) { writeln("Args: ", args[1 .. $]); }

#!/usr/bin/env dub
/+ dub.sdl:
    name "script"
    dependency "mir-algorithm" version="~>3.22"
+/
void main() { import std.stdio; writeln("with deps"); }

2.5 Creating a Project with DUB

dub init myapp                 # interactive: dub.json or dub.sdl
cd myapp
dub run                        # build + run
dub build --build=release
dub test                       # run unittests
dub add vibe-d                 # add a dependency

2.6 Editor Setup

VS Code: the code-d extension (installs serve-d, dfmt, and D-Scanner).

IntelliJ (the intellij-dlang plugin), Vim/Neovim (serve-d via LSP), Emacs (d-mode + lsp), Visual Studio (Visual D), Sublime, Geany.