diff options
author | Mike Buland <eichlan@xagasoft.com> | 2012-11-08 20:38:56 +0000 |
---|---|---|
committer | Mike Buland <eichlan@xagasoft.com> | 2012-11-08 20:38:56 +0000 |
commit | c5d1304f04273b579e00f967ec564a8de3ea0e69 (patch) | |
tree | be6bacefb60a64aef0017f94cd4913d89c6032fe /docs | |
parent | 21cf5c846c1d004da98b4c93715ca44036f7ecd5 (diff) | |
download | build-c5d1304f04273b579e00f967ec564a8de3ea0e69.tar.gz build-c5d1304f04273b579e00f967ec564a8de3ea0e69.tar.bz2 build-c5d1304f04273b579e00f967ec564a8de3ea0e69.tar.xz build-c5d1304f04273b579e00f967ec564a8de3ea0e69.zip |
Packaging updates, started on the manual, too.
Diffstat (limited to '')
-rw-r--r-- | docs/build-manual.tex | 134 |
1 files changed, 134 insertions, 0 deletions
diff --git a/docs/build-manual.tex b/docs/build-manual.tex new file mode 100644 index 0000000..a85c20e --- /dev/null +++ b/docs/build-manual.tex | |||
@@ -0,0 +1,134 @@ | |||
1 | \documentclass[letterpaper]{book} | ||
2 | \usepackage{listings} | ||
3 | \begin{document} | ||
4 | |||
5 | \title{Xagasoft Build Manual} | ||
6 | \author{Mike Buland} | ||
7 | \date{November 2012} | ||
8 | \maketitle | ||
9 | |||
10 | \tableofcontents | ||
11 | |||
12 | \chapter{Introduction} | ||
13 | Build is a self-contained, sophisticated tool for performing multi-step | ||
14 | processes. The primary goal is to be able to replace the standard | ||
15 | configure/make or cmake/make systems that have become quite popular. | ||
16 | |||
17 | By default Build will work much as one would expect for compiling software, it | ||
18 | uses file exisistance and timestamps to determine what to build, and every file | ||
19 | has a list of dependant files and input files. | ||
20 | |||
21 | However, this is only the default configuration, you can use anything as the | ||
22 | condition for determining what to build or rebuild, and targets do not have to | ||
23 | be files. | ||
24 | |||
25 | Build boasts a sophisticated system for chaining rules together to take files | ||
26 | through as many steps as necesarry to get them in the desirable foramt for input | ||
27 | to the final step. This may sound a little vague and confusing, but what it | ||
28 | means in the end is that you can list, say, a bison file as on input to an | ||
29 | executable target that requires object (.o) files. In this case build will | ||
30 | automatically figure out that it can get a .c file from the .y input file, and | ||
31 | a .o file from the .c file. It will autogenerate these targets for you and | ||
32 | save a lot of time and effort on your part. | ||
33 | |||
34 | \chapter{Structure of a Build File} | ||
35 | Build files contain build script along with four major types of declerations. | ||
36 | These are the major types that can be decared: | ||
37 | |||
38 | \begin{description} | ||
39 | \item[Targets] \hfill \\ | ||
40 | Explicit targets can be defined that represent units of work with a definate | ||
41 | goal and possibly inputs that can be other targets. | ||
42 | \item[Actions] \hfill \\ | ||
43 | Actions are triggered from the command line and determine what targets to | ||
44 | build and how. | ||
45 | \item[Rules] \hfill \\ | ||
46 | Rules determine both how to build explicit targets to make life easier as | ||
47 | well as how to auto-generate implicit targets. An explicitly defined target | ||
48 | does not need to use a rule, but it can make everything easier. | ||
49 | \item[Functions] \hfill \\ | ||
50 | Functions can be defined like in most programming languages, and called | ||
51 | anywhere in the script. Functions can also be used in several key places in | ||
52 | targets to extend the functionality of build. | ||
53 | \end{description} | ||
54 | |||
55 | Build script also allows you to declare and use variables like many other | ||
56 | scripting languages, which can be integers, floats, booleans, strings, lists, | ||
57 | the special value null, and file handles. | ||
58 | |||
59 | \section{A Quick Example} | ||
60 | Let's start with a very basic example. This example is capable of building an | ||
61 | executable from any number of cpp source files: | ||
62 | |||
63 | \begin{lstlisting} | ||
64 | target "myprogram" | ||
65 | { | ||
66 | rule "exe"; | ||
67 | input files("src/*.cpp"); | ||
68 | } | ||
69 | \end{lstlisting} | ||
70 | |||
71 | This example doesn't set any special compliation or linking flags, but it is a | ||
72 | complete and valid build file. It will find all cpp files in src, generate an | ||
73 | implicit target for each file to compile it into an object (.o) file, and then | ||
74 | use those files as the input to the myprogram target in the end. | ||
75 | |||
76 | \section{Targets} | ||
77 | A target represents a unit of work. This is usually a file in a compilation | ||
78 | process, e.g. an object file, an executable, a library, et cetera. Targets | ||
79 | come in two major flavors: explicit and implicit. Explicit targets are any | ||
80 | targets that you define in a build script with the "target" keyword. Targets | ||
81 | can also be auto-generated by rules when needed, these are known as implicit | ||
82 | targets. | ||
83 | |||
84 | If a target is declared more than once the two targets are merged. You can | ||
85 | think of this as a newer target overriding \emph{parts} of an older target. It | ||
86 | does not replace the previous target. | ||
87 | |||
88 | Targets can be declared inside of any linguistic construct, including if blocks | ||
89 | and loops, this gives you a lot of flexibility, but in addition, you can | ||
90 | specify a list of strings instead of a single string for the name of a target, | ||
91 | this creates a target with the same specs for each name in the list. | ||
92 | |||
93 | Targets can contain the following special keywords: | ||
94 | |||
95 | \begin{description} | ||
96 | \item[input] \hfill \\ | ||
97 | You can specify any expression that results in a string or list of strings. | ||
98 | These strings will be added to the list of inputs to this target, and if | ||
99 | they are targets they will be added as dependancies. If you have a rule | ||
100 | specified then the list of inputs will be used to generate implicit targets | ||
101 | to satisfy dependancies. | ||
102 | \item[requires] \hfill \\ | ||
103 | \item[profile] \hfill \\ | ||
104 | \item[rule] \hfill \\ | ||
105 | \item[tag] \hfill \\ | ||
106 | \item[display] \hfill \\ | ||
107 | \end{description} | ||
108 | |||
109 | |||
110 | \section{Actions} | ||
111 | Actions are the primary interface to build scripts from the command line, when | ||
112 | calling build you specify an action to run. If no action is specified on the | ||
113 | command line the action "default" is run. If the build script doesn't specify | ||
114 | a default action, one is generated for it that will attempt to build all | ||
115 | explicit targets. | ||
116 | |||
117 | Actions can contain almost any build script, plus an extra syntax that allows | ||
118 | you to process a list of targets in a given profile (see the targets section | ||
119 | for details). Basically this means that you have a lot of flexibility | ||
120 | controlling how your targets are processed. | ||
121 | |||
122 | Let's start with an example: | ||
123 | |||
124 | \begin{lstlisting} | ||
125 | action "default" | ||
126 | { | ||
127 | build: "myprogram"; | ||
128 | } | ||
129 | \end{lstlisting} | ||
130 | |||
131 | This is as basic as it gets, this example will cause build to process the | ||
132 | target "myprogram" using the profile "build". | ||
133 | |||
134 | \end{document} | ||