Builddir

builddir is a little helper tool for C/C++ programmers to manage out-of-source build directories. It manages mappings between build directories and the associated source directories and allows to switch between them.

Installation

Installation consists out of multiple steps. The first is to install the builddir gem:

gem install builddir

Second, a shell wrapper script (builddir_source_script) has to be placed in the PATH. The script can either be installed by hand (from lib/data) or can be generated using the builddir_generate_source_script command.

builddir_generate_source_script ~/bin/builddir_source_script

Third, to make builddir intuitively usable it is recommended to define the following bash aliases.

alias builddir='source builddir_source_script'
alias bdir='builddir'
alias cds='builddir -s'
alias cdb='builddir -cb'
alias cmake='builddir_cmake'
alias configure='builddir_configure'

Fourth, define the build directory root by exporting the DEFAULT_BUILDDIR environment variable. When DEFAULT_BUILDDIR is not defined then /tmp/builddir is used as default.

export DEFAULT_BUILDDIR="<path to the builddir>"

It is highly recommended to add the alias definitions and the environment variable definition to the configuration file (~/.bashrc, ~/.zshrc.local, ...) of the used shell to make them permanent.

Usage

TODO: Document the different operations

TODO:

• add documentation
• add unit tests
• support multiple build directories?