Build System

Yet another C++ build system heavily inspired by dune and premmake. A project is defined by a bs_project.lua file. And each software component is defined by a bs_component.lua file.

For now this build system is a toy and does only compile C++.

Basic configuration

A project is defined by a bs_project.lua file which is placed at the root directory of the project. A software component should contain a bs_component.lua file in its root directory.

Here is the basic configuration for this example project:

my_project
├── bs_project.lua
└── sources
    └── hello
        ├── bs_component.lua
        └── src
            └── main.cpp

Project configuration

The bare minimum configuration required a project name, a project version, the languages in which the project is written, and the path to the path to directory containing software components.

Here is the syntax of the bs_project.lua file:

project = require "project"

project:Name       "My Pretty Project"
project:Version    "0.1.0"

project:Languages  "CPP"     -- Enables C++ compilation

project:AddSources "sources/" -- All the directories and subdirectories
                              -- of "sources/" could contain a component

Component configuration

The bare minimum configuration for a component requires a component name, a component type, the languages in which the component is written and the location of its sources.

components = require "components"

component = components:NewComponent "hello"

component:Type       "executable" -- Tells the build system to build 
                                  -- an executable
component:Languages  "CPP"        -- Enables C++ compilation
component:AddSources "src/"       -- The source files will be searched 
                                  -- in src and its subdirectories

Profile configuration

To configure the build of the project and its components, a profile can be defined in the project and/or in the components. There is a base profile used for the project and one used for each component. In addition, named profiles (such as Debug) can be defined in the project and each component.

When building the project, the profile to use is computed as follows:

The profile of a component inherits from the profile of the project. And a named profile inherits from the base profile. So that we have:

When the used profile is the base profile

  project base profile <- component base profile

When the used profile is a named profile

  project base profile <- project named profile <- component named profile <- component base profile

A profile can have extra sources files, plus options for the C++ language.

Configure base profile

CPP = project:CPP()  -- same can be done with component:CPP()

CPP:Dialect "CPP20"
CPP:AddBuildOptions {"-Wall", "-Werror"}
CPP:AddLinkOptions {"-lm"}

Configure named profile

debugProfile = project:Profile "Debug"
CPP = debugProfile:CPP()
CPP:AddBuildOptions {"-g", "-O0"}

For more examples

See the examples listed in tests/suites.

Gueckmooh / build_system