Section 2.3. Building Software


2.3. Building Software

Software products are built from their source files, also known as source code, which is often the collection of files stored in an SCM tool. A build tool uses the source files and follows some specified build rules to run other tools such as compilers to create the product from the source files. These build rules are usually specified in configuration files known as build files, which are part of the source files for a product.

Build tools have to be aware of which products can be built from a given set of source files and other files such as libraries. They also have to know which parts of the product depend on which other parts, so that if one source file is changed by a developer, then all the other affected parts will also be rebuilt. Build tools should be able to execute the correct commands for building the same product on different platforms, while hiding the idiosyncrasies of each platform from the product's developers as much as possible. Build tools are also used to generate executables that run on platforms other than the platform that the build tool is actually run on; this is known as cross-compiling.

Chapter 5 describes what to look for in a build tool and examines some commonly used build tools such as make, Ant, Jam, and SCons in more detail.



Practical Development Environments
Practical Development Environments
ISBN: 0596007965
EAN: 2147483647
Year: 2004
Pages: 150

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