SYNOPSIS

Build is an opinionated c++ build-tool. It uses git and node.js. It's made for use with the datcxx project.

MOTIVATION

C++ build tools and package managers are highly ambitious and try to solve a larger set of problems than needed for this project. Let's make something that...

Uses a subset of package.json.
No semver, or package-locks, use git commit hashes.
No login, no users, no analytics, no fancy features.

INSTALL

npm install -g datcxx/build

USAGE

All projects must have a package.json.

build -h

INIT

Use the init command to automatically create a package.json file.

build init

ADD DEPENDENCY

Use the add command to add a dependency.

build add foo/bar

Adding a dependency with a hash will lock the dependency and install that exact commit at install-time. Without a hash, the dependency will get assigned the latest commit hash of the remote at install-time.

build add foo/bar ceda12f

INSTALL DEPENDENCIES

Use the i command to recursively install dependencies.

build i

BUILD YOUR PROJECT

To build your project, don't specify any commands just type build. Use the DEBUG=true environment variable if you want to print what the compiler is being asked to do.

build

When no command is specified, all flags are passed to the compiler. For example following flags are sent to the compiler.

build -g -O0

PACKAGE.JSON

FIELDS

name

Name is required. But unlike npm the name and version do not create a unique identity in the world for your package. In fact, version is not used at all.

description

Put a description in it. It’s a string. This helps you remember what the package does.

files

A list of files to include. Nothing is included by default. Does not currently support globs.

repository

A string that specifies the place where the code lives. This is helpful for people who want to contribute.

scripts

The “scripts” property is a dictionary containing script commands that are run at various times in the lifecycle of your package. The key is the lifecycle event, and the value is the command to run at that point. The following scripts are supported.

install Run AFTER the package is installed.
test Run by the npm test command.

You can also create your own arbitrary scripts and run them with the command build run <script-name>.

EXAMPLE

{
  "name": "hypercore",
  "description": "Hypercore is a secure, distributed append-only log.",
  "repository": "git@github.com:datcxx/cxx-hypercore.git",
  "dependencies": {
    "git@github.com:datcxx/cxx-flat-tree": "c051eac4"
  },
  "scripts": {
    "test": "c++ -std=c++2a test/index.cxx lib/hypercore.so -o test/index && ./test/index",
    "greeting": "echo Hello, World"
  },
  "flags": [
    "-shared",
    "-o ./lib/hypercore.so",
    "-std=c++2a",
    "-ferror-limit=2"
  ],
  "files": [
    "index.hxx",
    "index.cxx"
  ]
}

TODO

Nice to have - as of now there is no caching strategy.

heapwolf/build