jhidding / meta-ninja

Meta-build system for Ninja written in GNU Guile Scheme

Ninja Meta-Build system

This script configures a build.ninja file by scanning a target folder for files with the correct extension. It is completely written in GNU Guile Scheme.

The script expects a project.scm file to be present in the folder from which meta-ninja is being run. Here's an example:

(settings
  ; use the Gnu C++ compiler
  (compiler  "g++")
  ; put object files in the `build` directory
  (build_dir "build")
  ; run `pkg-config` on these, to get $cflags and $ldflags
  (libraries ("ncurses" "guile-2.0"))
  ; search for *.cc
  (extension "cc")
  ; run with these extra $cflags
  (cflags    "-O3 -Wall"))

(target
  ; name of the target
  (name      "slasher")
  ; type: executable, shared-object or archive
  ; this currently doesn't do anything
  (type      executable)
  ; source folder
  (sources   ("src")))

The slasher project contains only one source file, giving the output in build.ninja:

cflags = -D_GNU_SOURCE -pthread -I/usr/include/guile/2.0 -O3 -Wall
ldflags = -lncurses -ltinfo -lguile-2.0 -lgc 
compiler = g++
build_dir = build

rule compile
  depfile = $out.d
  command = $compiler -MMD -MF $out.d $cflags -c $in -o $out
  description = COMPILING $out

rule link
  command = $compiler $ldflags $in -o $out
  description = LINKING $out

build slasher: link $build_dir/src/main.o
build $build_dir/src/main.o: compile src/main.cc

Usage

The nice thing is, that meta-ninja is small enough to distribute along with a project. Most GNU systems come with a packaged version of Guile. The idea is that project files should remain tiny; I have no intention of reinventing CMake. Still, if you add some cool features, please let me know.