In early 2017, Microsoft announcedopen sourcetheir DirectX shader compiler (DirectX Shader Compiler); and later, in 2018, build support on Linux. Today, Microsoft announced that it is starting to provide official Linux binaries of its DirectX shader compiler.

The latest December 2022 DX compiler release marks the first time it has full Linux binaries as part of a release, in addition to full support for HLSL 2021 to generate SPIR-V and various new compiler flags. The release notes mention:

Linux binaries are now included. This includes compiler executables, dynamic libraries, and dxil signed libraries.

This package includes dxc.exe, dxcompiler.dll, corresponding libs and headers, and dxil.dll for x64 and arm64 platforms on Windows.
The package also includes for the first time a Linux version of the compiler along with the corresponding executables, libdxcompiler.so, headers and libdxil.so for x64 platforms.

In this regard, the technology website Phoronix believes that this does not bring any real benefits to Linux end users.As mentioned, it was already possible to compile the DirectX shader compiler for Linux back in 2018; with official binaries now available, you don’t get Direct3D 12 natively on Linux, replacing VKD3D-Proton or anything like that – “this is only DirectX shader compiler“.

DirectXShaderCompiler on Linux is useful for developers in the case of SPIR-V conversion for shaders, compiling HLSL shaders to DXIL. Mesa uses it as part of the D3D12 work to benefit the use of Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL2), and similar paths to better interoperability for developers.

Those who are interested can go throughview hereMicrosoft’s latest DirectX Shader Compiler release with Linux binaries.