Zbuild

zbuild is a modern makefile-like build automation tool.

Guide

See the Guide for a proper introduction to zbuild.

Example

Zbuild uses a yaml file to specify all rules. It will look for for the nearest zbuild.yaml file in the current or parent directories.

If you have a project in C, with the following directory structure, the zbuild specified can build your project.

my_proj/
	build/
		a.o
		b.o
		my_proj.out
	src/
		a.c
		b.c

zbuild.yaml:

# Global aliases
# These are aliases that may be used in the whole manifest.
# You can reference them by using `$(<name>)` at any point.
alias:
  build_dir: build
  src_dir: src

# Default targets
# These are the targets (i.e. files / rules) that will be built
# when no command line arguments are given.
default:
  - $(build_dir)/my_proj.out

# Rules
# zbuild will examine these to figure out how to build any target
rules:
  # Each rule has a unique name, used only for it's identification
  compile_o:
    # Rule aliases
    # Rules may contain scoped aliases, specific to them.
    alias:
      # `^(...)` specifies a pattern to match, every other instance of it will be replaced in the rest of the rule.
      # Patterns are simple string replacements currently.
      # You may also only have a single pattern per rule currently.
      output: $(build_dir)/^(name).o
      input: $(src_dir)/^(name).c

    # Output items
    # These are the items that your rule outputs.considered.
    out: [$(output)]

    # Dependencies
    # These are the items that your rule requires.
    deps: [$(input)]

    # Execution
    #
    # Specifies an array of commands to execute to build this rule. Each command is an array of arguments. It will not be passed to a shell, but instead be executed as-is
    exec:
      - [gcc, $(input), -c, -o, $(output)]

  compile_out:
    out: [$(build_dir)/my_proj.out]
    deps: [$(build_dir)/a.o, $(build_dir)/b.o]

    exec:
      - [gcc, $(build_dir)/a.o, $(build_dir)/b.o, -o, $(build_dir)/my_proj.out]

Then simply run zbuild and it will build (or rebuild, if out of date) the final binary.

Installation

You may download the latest release from the releases page.

You may also compile it yourself, with a nightly rust compiled (>= rustc 1.66.0-nightly (432abd86f 2022-09-20), may work with older) and install it by:

1. Clone the repo

   git clone https://github.com/Zenithsiz/zbuild

2. Build + install

   cargo install --path zbuild