Rscons

Software construction library inspired by SCons and implemented in Ruby

Installation

Add this line to your application's Gemfile:

gem "rscons"

And then execute:

$ bundle install

Or install it yourself as:

$ gem install rscons

Usage

Rscons is a Ruby library. It can be called from a standalone Ruby script or it can be used with rake and called from your Rakefile.

Example: Building a C Program

Rscons::Environment.new do |env|
  env["CFLAGS"] << "-Wall"
  env.Program("program", Dir["**/*.c"])
end

Example: Building a D Program

Rscons::Environment.new do |env|
  env["DFLAGS"] << "-Wall"
  env.Program("program", Dir["**/*.d"])
end

Example: Cloning an Environment

main_env = Rscons::Environment.new do |env|
  # Store object files from sources under "src" in "build/main"
  env.build_dir("src", "build/main")
  env["CFLAGS"] = ["-DSOME_DEFINE", "-O3"]
  env["LIBS"] = ["SDL"]
  env.Program("program", Dir["src/**/*.cc"])
end

debug_env = main_env.clone do |env|
  # Store object files from sources under "src" in "build/debug"
  env.build_dir("src", "build/debug")
  env["CFLAGS"] -= ["-O3"]
  env["CFLAGS"] += ["-g", "-O0"]
  env.Program("program-debug", Dir["src/**/*.cc"])
end

Example: Custom Builder

Custom builders are implemented as classes which extend from Rscons::Builder. The builder must have a run method which is called to invoke the builder. The run method should return the name of the target built on success, and false on failure.

class GenerateFoo < Rscons::Builder
  def run(target, sources, cache, env, vars)
    cache.mkdir_p(File.dirname(target))
    File.open(target, "w") do |fh|
      fh.puts <<EOF
#define GENERATED 42
EOF
    end
    target
  end
end

Rscons::Environment.new do |env|
  env.add_builder(GenerateFoo.new)
  env.GenerateFoo("foo.h", [])
  env.Program("a.out", Dir["*.c"])
end

Example: Custom Builder That Only Regenerates When Necessary

class CmdBuilder < Rscons::Builder
  def run(target, sources, cache, env, vars)
    cmd = ["cmd", "-i", sources.first, "-o", target]
    unless cache.up_to_date?(target, cmd, sources, env)
      cache.mkdir_p(File.dirname(target))
      system(cmd)
      cache.register_build(target, cmd, sources, env)
    end
    target
  end
end

Rscons::Environment.new do |env|
  env.add_builder(CmdBuilder.new)
  env.CmdBuilder("foo.gen", "foo_gen.cfg")
end

Example: Custom Builder That Generates Multiple Output Files

class CModuleGenerator < Rscons::Builder
  def run(target, sources, cache, env, vars)
    c_fname = target
    h_fname = target.sub(/\.c$/, ".h")
    cmd = ["generate_c_and_h", sources.first, c_fname, h_fname]
    unless cache.up_to_date?([c_fname, h_fname], cmd, sources, env)
      cache.mkdir_p(File.dirname(target))
      system(cmd)
      cache.register_build([c_fname, h_fname], cmd, sources, env)
    end
    target
  end
end

Rscons::Environment.new do |env|
  env.add_builder(CModuleGenerator.new)
  env.CModuleGenerator("build/foo.c", "foo_gen.cfg")
end

Example: Custom Builder Using Builder#standard_build()

The standard_build method from the Rscons::Builder base class can be used when the builder needs to execute a system command to produce the target file. The standard_build method will return the correct value so its return value can be used as the return value from the run method.

class CmdBuilder < Rscons::Builder
  def run(target, sources, cache, env, vars)
    cmd = ["cmd", "-i", sources.first, "-o", target]
    standard_build("CmdBld #{target}", target, cmd, sources, env, cache)
  end
end

Rscons::Environment.new do |env|
  env.add_builder(CmdBuilder.new)
  env.CmdBuilder("foo.gen", "foo_gen.cfg")
end

Example: Custom Builder Using Environment#add_builder()

The add_builder method of the Rscons::Environment class optionally allows you to define and register a builder by providing a name and action block. This can be useful if the builder you are trying to define is easily expressed as a short ruby procedure. When add_builder is called in this manner a new builder will be registered with the environment with the given name. When this builder is used it will call the provided block in order to build the target.

Rscons::Environment.new do |env|
  env.add_builder(:JsonToYaml) do |target, sources, cache, env, vars|
    unless cache.up_to_date?(target, :JsonToYaml, sources, env)
      cache.mkdir_p(File.dirname(target))
      File.open(target, 'w') do |f|
        f.write(YAML.dump(JSON.load(IO.read(sources.first))))
      end
      cache.register_build(target, :JsonToYaml, sources, env)
    end
    target
  end
  env.JsonToYaml('foo.yml','foo.json')
end

Example: Using different compilation flags for some sources

Rscons::Environment.new do |env|
  env["CFLAGS"] = ["-O3", "-Wall", "-DDEFINE"]
  env.add_build_hook do |build_op|
    if build_op[:target] =~ %r{build/third-party}
      build_op[:vars]["CFLAGS"] -= ["-Wall"]
    end
  end
  env.build_dir("src", "build")
  env.Program("program", Dir["**/*.cc"])
end

Each build hook block will be invoked for every build operation, so the block should test the target or sources if its action should only apply to some subset of build targets or source files.

Build hooks can alter construction variable values for a particular build operation. Build hooks can also register new build targets.

The build_op parameter to the build hook block is a Hash describing the build operation with the following keys:

• :builder - Builder instance in use
• :env - Environment calling the build hook; note that this may be different from the Environment that the build hook was added to in the case that the original Environment was cloned with build hooks!
• :target - String name of the target file
• :sources - Array of the source files
• :vars - Rscons::VarSet containing the construction variables to use. The build hook can overwrite entries in build_op[:vars] to alter the construction variables in use for this specific build operation.

Example: Creating a static library

Rscons::Environment.new do |env|
  env.Library("mylib.a", Dir["src/**/*.c"])
end

Example: Creating a C++ parser source from a Yacc/Bison input file

Rscons::Environment.new do |env|
  env.CFile("#{env.build_root}/parser.tab.cc", "parser.yy")
end

Details

Builders

Rscons ships with a number of builders:

• Command, which executes a user-defined command to produce the target
• CFile, which builds a C or C++ source file from a lex or yacc input file
• Disassemble, which disassembles an object file to a disassembly listing
• Library, which collects object files into a static library archive file
• Object, which compiles source files to produce an object file
• Preprocess, which invokes the C/C++ preprocessor on a source file
• Program, which links object files to produce an executable

If you want to create an Environment that does not contain any builders, you can use the exclude_builders key to the Environment constructor.

Command

env.Command(target, sources, "CMD" => command)
# Example
env.Command("docs.html", "docs.md",
    "CMD" => ["pandoc", "-fmarkdown", "-thtml", "-o${_TARGET}", "${_SOURCES}"],
    "CMD_DESC" => "PANDOC")

The command builder executes a user-defined command in order to produce the desired target file based on the provided source files.

CFile

env.CFile(target, source)
# Example
env.CFile("parser.c", "parser.y")

The CFile builder will generate a C or C++ source file from a lex (.l, .ll) or yacc (.y, .yy) input file.

Disassemble

env.Disassemble(target, source)
# Example
env.Disassemble("module.dis", "module.o")

The Disassemble builder generates a disassembly listing using objdump from and object file.

Library

env.Library(target, sources)
# Example
env.Library("lib.a", Dir["src/**/*.c"])

The Library builder creates a static library archive from the given source files.

Object

env.Object(target, sources)
# Example
env.Object("module.o", "module.c")

The Object builder compiles the given sources to an object file.

Preprocess

env.Preprocess(target, source)
# Example
env.Preprocess("module-preprocessed.cc", "module.cc")

The Preprocess builder invokes either ${CC} or ${CXX} (depending on if the source contains an extension in ${CXXSUFFIX} or not) and writes the preprocessed output to the target file.

Program

env.Program(target, sources)
# Example
env.Program("myprog", Dir["src/**/*.cc"])

The Program builder compiles and links the given sources to an executable file. Object files or source files can be given as sources.

Managing Environments

An Rscons::Environment consists of:

• a collection of construction variables
• a collection of builders
• a mapping of build directories from source directories
• a default build root to apply if no build directories are matched
• a collection of targets to build
• a collection of build hooks

When cloning an environment, by default the construction variables and builders are cloned, but the new environment does not inherit any of the targets, build hooks, build directories, or the build root from the source environment.

The set of environment attributes that are cloned is controllable via the :clone option to the #clone method. For example, env.clone(clone: :all) will include construction variables, builders, build hooks, build directories, and the build root.

The set of pending targets is never cloned.

Cloned environments contain "deep copies" of construction variables. For example, in:

base_env = Rscons::Environment.new
base_env["CPPPATH"] = ["one", "two"]
cloned_env = base_env.clone
cloned_env["CPPPATH"] << "three"

base_env["CPPPATH"] will not include "three".

Build Hooks

Environments can have build hooks which are added with env.add_build_hook(). Build hooks are invoked immediately before a builder executes. Build hooks can modify the construction variables in use for the build operation. They can also register new build targets.

Environments can also have post-build hooks added with env.add_post_build_hook(). Post-build hooks are only invoked if the build operation was a success. Post-build hooks can invoke commands using the newly-built files, or register new build targets.

Construction Variable Naming

• uppercase strings - the default construction variables that Rscons uses
• symbols, lowercase strings - reserved as user-defined construction variables

API documentation

Documentation for the complete Rscons API can be found at http://rubydoc.info/github/holtrop/rscons/frames.

Release Notes

v1.9.0

• fix Rscons.set_suffix to append the given suffix if the filename has none
• rework Preprocess builder to consider deep dependencies
• remove ${CFLAGS} from default CPP_CMD
• fix variable references that expand to arrays in build target sources
• allow overriding Command builder short description with CMD_DESC variable

v1.8.1

• fix Environment#dump when construction variables are symbols

v1.8.0

• new Command builder to execute arbitrary user commands
• new SimpleBuilder class
  • create new builders quickly by passing a block to Environment#add_builder
• improved YARD documentation
• add Environment#dump to debug Environment construction variables

v1.7.0

• allow build hooks to register new build targets
• add post-build hooks (register with Environment#add_post_build_hook)
• clear all build targets after processing an Environment
• allow trailing slashes in arguments to Environment#build_dir

v1.6.1

• add DEPFILESUFFIX construction variable to override dependency file suffix
• fix Environment#depends to expand its arguments for construction variables

v1.6.0

• support lambdas as construction variable values

v1.5.0

• add "json" as a runtime dependency
• update construction variables to match SCons more closely
  • add CPPDEFPREFIX, INCPREFIX, CPPDEFINES, CCFLAGS, LIBDIRPREFIX, and LIBLINKPREFIX
• add Environment#shell
• add Environment#parse_flags, #parse_flags!, #merge_flags
• unbuffer $stdout by default
• add PROGSUFFIX construction variable (defaults to .exe on MinGW/Cygwin)
• add Rscons::BuildTarget and Builder#create_build_target
• update specs to RSpec 3.x and fix to run on MinGW/Cygwin/Linux
• add YARD documentation to get to 100% coverage

v1.4.3

• fix builders properly using construction variable overrides
• expand nil construction variables to empty strings

v1.4.2

• add Environment#expand_path
• expand construction variable references in builder targets and sources before invoking builder

v1.4.1

• fix invoking a builder with no sources while a build root defined

v1.4.0

• add CFile builder
• add Disassemble builder
• add Preprocess builder
• pass the Environment object to build hooks in the :env key of the build_op parameter
• expand target/source paths beginning with "^/" to be relative to the Environment's build root
• many performance improvements, including:
  • use JSON instead of YAML for the cache to improve loading speed (Issue #7)
  • store a hash of the build command instead of the full command contents in the cache
  • implement copy-on-write semantics for construction variables when cloning Environments
  • only load the cache once instead of on each Environment#process
  • only write the cache when something has changed
• fix Cache#mkdir_p to handle relative paths (Issue #5)
• flush the cache to disk if a builder raises an exception (Issue #4)

v1.3.0

• change Environment#execute() options parameter to accept the following options keys:
  • :env to pass an environment Hash to Kernel#system
  • :options to pass an options Hash to Kernel#system

v1.2.0

• add :clone option to Environment#clone to control exactly which Environment attributes are cloned
• allow nil to be passed in to Environment#build_root=

v1.1.0

• Change Cache#up_to_date?() and #register_build() to accept a single target file or an array of target file names

Contributing

1. Fork it
2. Create your feature branch (git checkout -b my-new-feature)
3. Commit your changes (git commit -am 'Add some feature')
4. Push to the branch (git push origin my-new-feature)
5. Create new Pull Request