nobuild

Header only library for writing build recipes in an opinionated way in C, with an additional testing framework included. Using the nobuild portion with the test framework, the tool becomes noframework.

The original code started as a fork from nobuild.

Main idea

The idea is that you should not need anything but a C compiler to build a C project. No make, no cmake, no shell, no cmd, no PowerShell etc. Only C compiler. So with the C compiler you bootstrap your build system and then you use the build system to build everything else, and run through all tests.

The framework should be able to make most of the decisions for you.

Begin

Try it out right here:

$ gcc ./nobuild.c -o ./nobuild
$ ./nobuild

Explore nobuild.c file.

After running the example, and getting an idea of feature based development. See the I would like to know more section.

Advantages of noframework

Reducing the amount of dependencies.
You end up using the same language for developing and building your project. Which may enable some interesting code reusage strategies. The build system can use the code of the project itself directly and the project can use the code of the build system also directly.
You get to use C more.
Built in test framework to go with your built in no build.

Disadvantages of noframework

Highly opinionated.
Doesn't work outside of C/C++ projects.
You get to use C more.

How to use the library in your own project

Keep in mind that nobuild.h is an stb-style header-only library. That means that just including it does not include the implementations of the functions. You have to #define NOBUILD_IMPLEMENTATION before the include. See our nobuild.c for an example.

Copy nobuild.h to your project
Create nobuild.c in your project with the build recipe. See our nobuild.c for an example.
Bootstrap the nobuild executable:
- $ gcc -O3 ./nobuild.c -o ./nobuild on POSIX systems
Run the build: $ ./nobuild

Feature based development

nobuild uses feature based development.

add a new feature to your project.

./nobuild --add math

this will automatically create an include file in the include directory, create a directory and file at math/lib.c, create a new test file named tests/math.c.

See this in action add

Some features could require additional Includes or other linked libraries. Edit the nobuild.c file, and add the new feature, along with any dependencies.

  ADD_FEATURE("math","-lpthread");

If math has any dependencies within your project, include them, and nobuild will automatically link them when building tests, and dynamic and static libraries.

  DEPS("math", "add", "mul", div");

After making any change to your projects nobuild.c file do not forget to run

Now, when running an incremental build, and changing the div feature, just run ./nobuild --incremental ./div/lib.c

The div feature will be rebuilt and tested, as well as math being rebuilt and tested!

See this in action incremental

You will notice in this repository, the stuff feature has multiple files. This is called a fat feature. Build times could degrade if you use too many fat features with too many dependencies on other fat features. It is recommended to create many light small single file features for maximum efficiency.

strager / nobuild