Introduction#

Aim#

BuildCC aims to be an alternative to Makefiles while using the feature rich C++ language instead of a custom DSL.

Features#

  • Complete flexibility for custom workflows and toolchains

  • C++ language feature benefits and debuggable build binaries

  • Optimized rebuilds through serialization.

    • Can optimize for rebuilds by comparing the previous stored build with current build.

    • Further details given in Architecture

  • Customizable for community plugins.

Pre-requisites#

  • Technical Knowledge

    • C++03 classes and template usage

  • C++17 Compiler with

    • C++17 filesystem library support

    • C++11 thread library support

  • Third Party Libraries (See License below)

    • JSON v3.11.2

    • Taskflow v3.1.0

    • CLI11 v2.1.0

    • Tiny Process Library v2.0.4

    • fmt v8.0.1

    • spdlog v1.9.2

    • CppUTest v4.0

General Information#

  • A one stage input / output procedure is called a Generator with a wide variety of use cases

    • Single input creates single output

    • Single input creates multiple outputs

    • Multiple inputs create single output

    • Multiple inputs creates multiple outputs

  • A two stage compile and link procedure is called a Target

    • This means that Executables, StaticLibraries and DynamicLibraries are all categorized as Targets

    • In the future C++20 modules can also be its own target depending on compiler implementations

  • Every Target requires a complementary (and compatible) Toolchain

    • This ensures that cross compiling is very easy and explicit in nature.

    • Multiple toolchains can be mixed in a single build file i.e we can generate targets using the GCC, Clang, MSVC and many other compilers simultaneously.

  • The compile_command (pch and object commands) and link_command (target command) is fed to the process call to invoke the Toolchain.

  • Each Target can depend on other targets efficiently through Parallel Programming using Taskflow.

    • Dependency between targets is explicitly mentioned through the Taskflow APIs

    • This has been made easier for the user through the buildcc::Register module.

  • Build files can be customized through command line arguments

    • Command line arguments can be stored in configurable .toml files and passed using the --config flag.

    • Users can define their own custom arguments.

    • Argument passing has been made easy using the buildcc::Args module.

Licenses#

BuildCC is licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0. See LICENSE for the full license text. BuildCC aims to use open-source libraries containing permissive licenses.

Note

Developers who would like to suggest an alternative library, raise an issue with the license and advantages clearly outlined.

  • Fmtlib (Formatting) [MIT License] [Header Only]

  • Spdlog (Logging) [MIT License] [Header Only]

  • Tiny Process Library (Process handling) [MIT License]

  • Taskflow (Parallel Programming) [MIT License] [Header Only]

  • Nlohmann::Json (Serialization) [MIT License] [Header Only]

  • CLI11 (Argument Parsing) [BSD-3-Clause License] [Header Only]

  • CppUTest (Unit Testing/Mocking) [BSD-3-Clause License]