Compiling Dart Applications

Contents

• Compilation Targets & Conditional Logic
• Workflow: Compiling Native Executables
• Workflow: Compiling AOT Snapshots
• Workflow: Compiling for the Web
• Examples

Compilation Targets & Conditional Logic

Select the appropriate dart compile subcommand based on the deployment target and constraints:

• If deploying self-contained native binaries on Windows/macOS/Linux: Use exe. This bundles the machine code and a minimal Dart runtime.
• If deploying to resource-constrained environments or distributing multiple command-line apps: Use aot-snapshot. This produces an architecture-specific module without the runtime. Execute it using dartaotruntime.
• If deploying to web targets: Use js or wasm. (See related skill: dart-web-development).
• If optimizing for fast startup using training data: Use jit-snapshot.
• If requiring a portable module across all OS/CPU architectures: Use kernel. Note that startup time is slower than AOT formats.

Note: The exe and aot-snapshot commands do not support dart:mirrors or dart:developer. They also do not run build hooks; use dart build if hooks are present.