On any Linux platform, there are two ways to do cross-platform compilation. For example, to build an `aarch64-linux` program on an `x86_64-linux` host, you can use the following methods:
1. Use the cross-compilation toolchain to compile the `aarch64` program.
- The disadvantage is that you cannot use the NixOS binary cache, and you need to compile everything yourself (cross-compilation also has a cache, but there is basically nothing in it).
- The advantages are that you don't need to emulate the instruction set, and the performance is high.
2. Use QEMU to emulate the `aarch64` architecture and then compile the program in the emulator.
- The disadvantage is that the instruction set is emulated, and the performance is low.
- The advantage is that you can use the NixOS binary cache, and you don't need to compile everything yourself.
The `nixpkgs.crossSystem` option is used to set `pkgs` to a cross-compilation toolchain, so that all the contents built will be `riscv64-linux` architecture.
## Compile through emulated system
The second method is to cross-compile through the emulated system. This method does not require a cross-compilation toolchain.
To use this method, first your building machine needs to enable the binfmt_misc module in the configuration. If your building machine is NixOS, add the following configuration to your NixOS Module to enable the simulated build system of `aarch64-linux` and `riscv64-linux` architectures:
You do not need to add any additional modules, just specify `system` as `riscv64-linux`.
Nix will automatically detect whether the current system is `riscv64-linux` during the build. If not, it will automatically build through the emulated system(QEMU). For users, these underlying operations are completely transparent.
Sometimes we may need to use a custom toolchain for building, such as using our own gcc, or using our own musl libc, etc. This modification can be achieved through overlays.
For example, let's try to use a different version of gcc, and test it through `nix repl`:
`nixpkgs.overlays` is used to modify the `pkgs` instance globally, and the modified `pkgs` instance will take effect to the whole flake. It will likely cause a large number of cache missing, and thus require building a large number of Nix packages locally.
To avoid this problem, a better way is to create a new `pkgs` instance, and only use this instance when building the packages we want to modify. The example `flake.nix` is as follows:
