Build Management

Diomidis Spinellis
Department of Management Science and Technology
Athens University of Economics and Business
Athens, Greece
dds@aueb.gr

The Build Process

Diagram of the build process

Typical Project Dependencies

Typical project dependencies

Example: Apache Project Dependencies

Apache dependencies

Makefiles

Tools like ant and make allow the automatic processing of dependencies
Dependencies are specified in a special file
Elements of a Makefile may include
- Variable definitions
- Rules for suffixes
- Dependencies
- Target build instructions
- Pseudo-targets
- Auto-generated dependencies
- Procedural specifications

Part of an Apache Makefile

OBJS= \
  modules.o \
  $(MODULES) \
  main/libmain.a \
  $(OSDIR)/libos.a \
  ap/libap.a

.c.o:
        $(CC) -c $(INCLUDES) $(CFLAGS) $<

.SUFFIXES: .def
.def.a:
        emximp -o $@ $<

$(TARGET): $(EXTRA_DEPS) $(SUBTARGET)

lib$(TARGET).$(SHLIB_SUFFIX_NAME): subdirs modules.o
        $(CC) -c $(INCLUDES) $(CFLAGS) buildmark.c
        [...]

target_static: subdirs modules.o
        $(CC) -c $(INCLUDES) $(CFLAGS) buildmark.c
        $(CC) $(CFLAGS) $(LDFLAGS) $(LDFLAGS_SHLIB_EXPORT) \
              -o $(TARGET) buildmark.o $(OBJS) $(REGLIB) $(EXPATLIB) $(LIBS)

clean:
        -rm -f $(TARGET) lib$(TARGET).* *.o
        @for i in $(SUBDIRS); do \
                echo "===> $(SDP)$$i"; \
                ( cd $$i && $(MAKE) $(MFLAGS_STATIC) SDP='$(SDP)' $@ ) || exit 1; \
                echo "<=== $(SDP)$$i"; \
        done

#Dependencies

$(OBJS): Makefile subdirs

# DO NOT REMOVE
buildmark.o: buildmark.c include/ap_config.h include/ap_mmn.h \
include/ap_config_auto.h os/unix/os.h include/ap_ctype.h \
include/hsregex.h include/httpd.h include/ap_alloc.h include/buff.h \
include/ap.h include/util_uri.h
modules.o: modules.c include/httpd.h include/ap_config.h \
include/ap_mmn.h include/ap_config_auto.h os/unix/os.h \
include/ap_ctype.h include/hsregex.h include/ap_alloc.h include/buff.h \
include/ap.h include/util_uri.h include/http_config.h

Make Problems and Solutions

Complexity

Dry run with make -n
Debug mode: print variables
Before lunch: make -k

Portability

ant/jam
Configuration

The Ant Approach

Build instructions written in XML
File typically named build . xml
Variable definitions (named properties)
Targets and dependencies
By default, the target specified in the default attribute of the project tag is built
Tasks are part of ant, typically not external programs

Some ant tasks

Examples of ant built-in tasks:

mkdir
copy
cvs
delete
javac
jar

Example Ant Build File

<project name="Jasper" default="deploy" basedir=".">
  

  
  
  <property file="build.properties"/>
  <property file="../build.properties"/>
  <property file="${user.home}/build.properties"/>

  
  <property name="build.compiler"    value="classic"/>
  <property name="copy.crimson.jar"  value="../lib/crimson.jar"/>

  
  <target name="build-prepare">

    <available classname="junit.framework.TestCase" property="junit.present" />

    <mkdir dir="${jasper.build}"/>
    <mkdir dir="${jasper.build}/jasper"/>
    <mkdir dir="${jasper.build}/lib"/>

  </target>

  
  <target name="build-static" depends="build-prepare">

    
    <copy todir="${jasper.build}/bin">
      <fileset dir="src/bin" />
    </copy>
    <fixcrlf srcdir="${jasper.build}/bin" includes="*.sh" eol="lf"/>
    <fixcrlf srcdir="${jasper.build}/bin" includes="*.bat" eol="crlf"/>
    <chmod perm="+x" file="${jasper.build}/bin/jasper.sh"/>
    <chmod perm="+x" file="${jasper.build}/bin/jspc.sh"/>

    
    <copy todir="${jasper.build}/jasper" file="${copy.crimson.jar}"/>
    <copy todir="${jasper.build}/jasper" file="${copy.jaxp.jar}"/>

  </target>

  
  <target name="build-main" depends="build-static">

    
    <javac srcdir="src/share" destdir="${jasper.build}/classes"
           debug="${compile.debug}" deprecation="${compile.deprecation}"
           optimize="${compile.optimize}"
           excludes="**/CVS/**">
      <classpath refid="jasper.classpath" />
    </javac>
</project>

Best Practices

Put all the project's elements under the build system
Minimize work through dependency analysis
Modularize the build into several targets
Common include files
Explore parallel builds to reduce build times
Provide a way to build from scratch
Create a tinderbox build

Best Practices (Variables)

Use variables for varying elements:

Directories
Tool options
Web sites
Version strings
OS dependencies

Contents