rake-compile

rake-compile is a set of rake DSL extensions that are useful for building C and C++ projects. I like rake a lot, but I found that I needed a lot of infrastructure in place to get a full build system going. This gem just wraps up that functionality.

Features

• Automatic source dependency calculation
• Dependency caching for faster rake invocations
• PCH file support
• Parallel building using rake's -j option
• automatic clean and clobber

Functions

# These methods apply to all targets defined, useful for setting up your build environment
build_directory <path>
base_cc_flags <flags>
base_cpp_flags <flags>

# These methods apply only to the next target defined, similar to desc for tasks
cc_flags <flags>
cpp_flags <flags>
link_library <path>
pch <path>

# These two methods define a build target.  They take a block that allows you to specify the
# object files that make up the final artifact
static_library <path>
executable <path>

Example

Here's a simple example that shows how the DSL is used.

# define your source files
SOURCES = FileList['**/*.cpp']

# define a directory that will hold build artifacts
build_directory BUILD_DIR

# define flags that will apply to all invocations of the default compiler
base_cpp_flags("-std=c++11 -I#{File.dirname(__FILE__)}")
base_cc_flags("-std=c11 -I#{File.dirname(__FILE__)}")

# define a pre-compiled header, that will be applied to the subsequently-defined target
pch 'my_prefix_header.pch'

# define compiler flags that will only apply to the subsequently-defined target
cpp_flags '-Iinclude'

# link the target with a library
link_library '/usr/local/lib/libz.a'

# define an executable target, and build it by compiling all the sources and linking
executable 'mybinary' do |target|
  # you can add objects via a FileList directory
  target.add_objects_from_sources SOURCES

  # or, for one source file at a time
  target.add_object_from_source 'my_source.cpp'

  # or create a direct mapping from source to object
  target.add_object 'my_obj.o', 'special_source.cpp'
end

Installation

Add this line to your application's Gemfile:

gem 'rake-compile'

And then execute:

$ bundle

Or install it yourself as:

$ gem install c-dependencies

Contributing

This project is intended to be a safe, welcoming space for collaboration, and contributors are expected to adhere to the Contributor Covenant code of conduct.

License

The gem is available as open source under the terms of the MIT License.