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Kotlin/Native application

Native applications are applications that run on the host operating system. There are several product types for the supported target platforms:

  • linux/app - a native Linux application
  • macos/app - a native macOS application
  • windows/app - a native Windows application

Using IntelliJ IDEA?

Make sure to install the Kotlin Multiplatform plugin to get proper support for Kotlin/Native.

Module layout

Here is an overview of the module layout for a Kotlin/Native application:

my-module/
├─ src/
│  ├─ main.kt #(1)!
│  ╰─ Util.kt
├─ test/
│  ╰─ UtilTest.kt
╰─ module.yaml
  1. This is the conventional entry point location (contains a top-level fun main()). See Entry point below.

Entry point

By default, the entry point of a Kotlin native application is expected to be a top-level main function in a main.kt file (case-insensitive) in the src folder.

If you don't want to follow this convention, you can specifty the fully qualified name of the entry point function explicitly in the module settings:

product: linux/app

settings:
  native:
    entryPoint: org.example.myapp.myMainFun # (1)!
  1. The fully qualified name of the entry point function.

The entry point function must either have no parameters or one Array<String> parameter (representing the command line arguments).

Packaging

You can use the build command to compile and link a native executable for your application (a .exe on Windows, or .kexe otherwise).

There is no extra packaging facilities at the moment, and the package command is not supported for these native product types.