swiftlings-linux

Small exercises to learn Swift, in the style of Rustlings, that run with the open-source Swift toolchain on Linux with no Mac or Xcode required. The exercises teach Swift the language, so the "-linux" is about the toolchain and runner, not Linux-specific content. You fix one broken file at a time; the runner recompiles it on save and moves you forward when it passes. Each exercise links to the matching chapter of The Swift Programming Language.

This is a fork of Swiftlings by Tornike Gomareli, which assumes macOS and Xcode. The exercises and the runner come from there. What this fork adds is making the whole thing build and run on Linux.

Why Swift on Linux

Swift is not only for Apple platforms, and most people who reach for it on Linux are not writing iOS apps. Common reasons:

• Server-side Swift. Frameworks like Vapor and Hummingbird run on Linux. If you write Swift backends, they are built, tested, and deployed on Linux, usually inside containers.
• Contributing to Swift itself. The compiler, standard library, Foundation, and the package manager are all developed and tested on Linux. Learning the language on Linux is a natural first step toward working on the toolchain.
• No Mac needed. Swift is worth learning on its own, and you do not need Apple hardware to do it. Students and anyone on a Linux machine can start here.
• CI/CD. Swift continuous integration runs in Linux containers (the official swift Docker images). Knowing the Linux toolchain helps when a build behaves differently from a Mac.
• Cross-platform reach. Swift targets Linux, Windows, and embedded systems. Learning it outside Xcode keeps the focus on the language rather than the IDE.

Prerequisites

• Swift 6.x, installed from swift.org

Check your toolchain:

swift --version

Quick start

git clone https://github.com/lucasly-ba/swiftlings-linux.git
cd swiftlings-linux
make install
swiftlings

make install builds a release binary and puts swiftlings in ~/.local/bin, so make sure that is on your PATH. Then swiftlings starts the watcher. If you would rather not install anything, run it straight from the repo with swift run swiftlings.

How it works

Open the first unsolved exercise. It has a // TODO and a compiler or logic error. Fix it and save. In watch mode the runner recompiles and reruns the file automatically. An exercise is solved once it compiles and all of its checks pass, and you move on to the next one.

Commands

While watching, the runner reads these keys:

Key	What it does
n	Move on to the next exercise once it passes
h	Show a hint
l	List every exercise and your progress
c	Check all exercises
x	Reset the current exercise to its starting state
q	Quit

Topics

The exercises go from the basics to the deeper parts of the language:

1. 00_basics
2. 01_control_flow
3. 02_strings_and_characters
4. 03_collections
5. 04_functions
6. 05_closures
7. 06_optionals
8. 07_structs
9. 08_classes
10. 09_initialization
11. 10_enums
12. 11_properties
13. 12_protocols
14. 13_extensions
15. 14_generics
16. 15_error_handling
17. 16_memory_management
18. 17_codable
19. 18_property_wrappers
20. 19_concurrency
21. 20_result_builders
22. 21_advanced_types

Each topic folder has a README.md with a short explanation and links to the official docs.

Bonus track

After the numbered topics there is dsa_queue, a small data-structures track that builds a FIFO queue from scratch, from a basic struct up to Collection conformance. It is not part of the numbered language curriculum.

Credits

• Swiftlings by Tornike Gomareli: the original Swift runner and exercises this is built on (MIT).
• Rustlings: the Rust project that started the idea (MIT).

License

MIT. See LICENSE.