redux

redo is pretty cool, but I ran into trouble with apenwarr's implementation (https://github.com/apenwarr/redo, see https://groups.google.com/d/msg/redo-list/GL5z8eEqT90/tk_vLZ...) with OS X Mavericks. I have no experience with the alternative implementation at https://github.com/gyepisam/redux, since it came out after I reimplemented the build system in question with CMake. In general, I found CMake quite useable for my needs, and quite clean. It also required less build system code than redo. CMake fits quite nicely into a (C or C++) project which consists of many binaries and libraries which can depend on each other.

Some of these requirements should be built into any build tool. However, most can be added easily enough: For instance, redux [https://github.com/gyepisam/redux] is written in Go (not compiled for binary distribution, but I could add that), is cross platform, supports any mix of languages and tasks, is very easy to learn. It uses shell scripts to create targets so everything is scriptable. Stuff like recognizing standard folder hierarchies and auto-discovery can be added with small scripts or tools. It can be as simple as you want or as complex as you need.

1. Since make has builtin suffix rules, the Makefile could be simplified to: CXX=g++ hello: main.o factorial.o hello.o clean: rm -rf *o hello 2. Shameless plug: he didn't mention redo [1], which is simpler than make and more reliable. The comparable redo scripts to the Makefile would be: cat <<EOF > @all.do redo hello EOF cat <<EOF > hello.do o='main.o factorial.o hello.o' redo-ifchange $o g++ $o -o $3 EOF cat <<EOF > default.o.do redo-ifchange $2.cpp g++ -c $1 -o $3 EOF cat <<EOF > @clean.do rm -rf *o hello EOF [Edit: Note that these are heredoc examples showing how to create the do scripts.] These are just shell scripts and can be extended as much as necesary. For instance, one can create a dependency on the compiler flags with these changes: cat

As of today, there is no build system which is 1) simple and easily comprehensible, 2) reliable and rock stable and 3) still able to build complex applications with all their (seemingly) quirky needs. See https://github.com/gyepisam/redux It's an implementation of DJB's redo concept. I wrote it because I needed a build tool with exactly the features you describe and none of the alternatives had them. I encourage you to try it out and provide feedback if necessary.

I completely agree with the sentiment of the article. Makefiles are a form of documentation. However, I no longer use make in new projects and instead use redux [1]: my implementation of djb redo. It manages the dependencies and you write your scripts in shell. Simple, straightforward and easy. No more 'make -B', no more make contortions. [1] https://github.com/gyepisam/redux

FWIW, I implemented redo in Go and released it a couple of months back. https://github.com/gyepisam/redux