autoforge

README

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This project is experimental, unfinished, and all but abandoned.

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autoforge

This utility is an attempt to implement a higher level build system on top of GNU Autotools. Autoforge generates autoconf scripts and automake source files from whole project templates. It also tracks inter-project dependencies and creates a meta-Makefile to build the projects in the correct order.

Packages

An Autoforge package is a directory containing C/C++ source files and a package definition file, whose name must consist of the package directory name and the extension .yaml.

Among other parameters, the package definition file specifies a template that the package uses, which, in turn, determines the type of binary that the package produces.

Because project templates encapsulate a great deal of complexity that comes with using Autotools, the structure of the package definition file is quite simple, which makes starting a new project a breeze.

Project templates

Project templates contain autoconf and automake source files required for building the project. Autoforge provides several generic templates. Additional templates can be created ad hoc.

Project definition files

By imposing certain restrictions on the project structure, Autoforge keeps the differences between the projects generated from the same template to a minimum. For a new project, its package definition file must specify just a few crucial parameters, such as the name of the project, the type of the license it uses, etc. A separate section below describes the full list of parameters that can appear in a package definition file.

Package search path

The AUTOFORGE_PKG_PATH environment variable defines a colon-separated list of directories that contain packages. Autoforge searches for package definition files in subdirectories of the AUTOFORGE_PKG_PATH directories. Subdirectories without such files are ignored.

Build directories

Autoforge requires that the packages are built in a dedicated directory separate from the source tree. A new build directory must be initialized first by running autoforge -init. Certain build configuration parameters can be specified only during the initialization.

The purpose of each build directory is defined by the combination of libraries and applications being built.

Autoforge commands

Get information on the available packages

The -query switch shows the list of all packages found on the search paths along with package descriptions and other essential information.

To suppress this detailed output and limit the list to just package names, use the -brief option.

Initialize the build directory

To initialize the build directory, use the -init switch. The following options define the initialization parameters:

• -installdir

  Set the target directory for make install.

• -docdir

  Set the installation directory for documentation.

• -pkgpath

  The list of directories where to search for packages. This parameter overrides the value of the $AUTOFORGE_PKG_PATH environment variable.

• -workspacedir

  Set the build directory, which is the current working directory by default.

Prepare packages for building and generate the meta-Makefile

Using Autoforge is an iterative process. Aside from a very limited number of configuration parameters specified during the initialization, the build directory can be repurposed at any time by choosing a different range of packages to build.

After the build directory has been initialized, Autotools source files must be generated for one or more packages, which must be specified on the command line as a list of individual packages or a range of packages, see below. This is the default mode of operation for Autoforge; it is activated when no other mode is triggered by a command line switch (e.g. -init).

The package range is a selection of packages in the following format: [base_pkg]:[dep_pkg], where base_pkg is a base package and dep_pkg is a package that requires it. When specified like that, the selection includes the dependency chain of packages from base_pkg to dep_pkg. Both base and dependent packages can be omitted, in which case all base packages or all dependent packages, respectively, will be included in the selection.

Appendix. The list of package definition file parameters

Here is the full list of variables that can appear in a package definition file:

• name

  The name of the package. This name does not have to match the name of the directory that contains the package.

• template

  The name of the package template. At the moment, either library or application.

• version

  Package version for use by Automake.

• license

  Either a short name of the license ("MIT", "LGPL", "GPL", "Apache", "Apache v2.0", etc.) or the full text of the license.

• version_info

 API/ABI revision for use by Libtool.

• requires

  The list of libraries that the package requires.

• headers

  For a library, the list of C/C++ headers exported by the library.

• sources

  The list of C/C++ sources containing the implementation.

• configure

  A snippet to be embedded in the configure.in file. Can be a mix of Bourne shell code and Autoconf macros.