4.15. Profiles

The generated C code can target a different minimum runtime by using valac’s --profile option. Vala supports two different profiles:

• gobject (default)

• libc

A profile determines which Vala language features are available to match the minimum runtime environment. The gobject profile enables code generation that requires GLib’s GType runtime type system and so the runtime environment will usually require libgobject and its small number of dependencies.

The libc profile removes the dependency on GLib and disables the runtime type system. The profile either generates alternative code or errors at compile time if a Vala language feature is used that requires the runtime type system. This is useful for writing code that targets microcontrollers or for generating binaries for system utilities or extremely small container images. The runtime environment will usually require a small subset of the ISO C standard library. The posix profile is currently an alias for libc because a POSIX compatible operating system includes the C standard library, but code generated from the profile can target non-POSIX platforms where a minimal C standard library is available for dynamic linking at runtime or statically linked in to the binary.

To select a different profile use valac’s --profile switch:

$ valac --profile=libc somecode.vala

Of course, the binary will still require the runtime dependencies needed for the libraries targeted with valac’s --pkg option.