High-Level build script for doing more complex build tasks
Project description
A wrapper build tool
Release Notes
0.4.1:2012-01-25
Add Multi Target Execution
Add Optional Flags to (Sub)Build modules (make)
Add Exit Code Return
0.4.0:2012-01-21
Moved to GitHub!
Add Parameter Passing to Xnt
Combined Build Modules ((N)Ant and make all live in xnt.build.make)
Add Compiler Wrappers (gcc/g++ and javac)
Testing
I don’t test everything as well as maybe I would like and, of course, some better integration tests would help. But one area that is seriously lacking testing are the Windows builds. I don’t have the best access to a Windows box and so I may not notice a potentially huge bug for some time.
Motivation
When writing something such as a build tool, there is always the question: “why?”. Why write yet another build tool?
Well, there are several reasons that are the backing motivation:
First, developing a variety of software, using one and only one build tool for every project is nearly (if not entirely) impossible. There is a desire to have a consistent build step and process when testing and deploying. Given the environment in which the code is written is heterogeneous, having one uniform build tool that wraps itself around the other ones (and has the ability to expand to new ones) is ideal.
Second, short of dropping into the language the build tool was written in, expanding some build steps is very difficult (or at least can be). Further there can be complicated build targets that require some interesting and potentially involved (smelly) procedures to be accomplished, that may or may not be easy to describe in the build file or in the native language. Therefore, having a wrapping build framework/ tool that is written in an easy to read and write language, such as Python, these complicated steps can depend less on some funky new build library (further adding to the dependency tree) and can become just implementation details (assuming, of course, you buy into Xnt first).
Last, and most certainly the least, I wanted to explore the idea. I wanted to write something that made me think about solving some of the problems challenged by such a tool.
What Xnt Is NOT
Calling Xnt simply a build tool is (grossly?) misleading. Xnt is not really a build tool in the traditional sense. Like stated above, it is more a wrapper around existing build tools. I didn’t want to replace what some of these tools already do really well (e.g. being able to describe how to compile an entire large Java program in several lines of code using Ant).
What Xnt IS
Xnt is a wrapping build tool, intended to be used with a multitude of sub-build tools, even in the same project. Regardless of the language the project is written in, Xnt should be able to suite your needs. If your language’s build tool is unable to do something concisely or cleanly, Python should help. [There could be more here… I can’t think of it though.]
Installing and Setting Up Xnt
Using Xnt is fairly simple. All you will need to do is install it, create a build.py file for your project, and invoke it just like any other build tool you have used before (e.g. $ xnt {target}).
Dependencies
Xnt has a few dependencies, specifically, Mercurial, CVS, NAnt, Ant, Make, and distribute. Currently, the dependencies are just assumed to be there, so you may, if you want, ignore them. However, you may not be able to easily install Xnt without distribute.
I plan to add Git (and maybe SVN) soon…
Source Install
To install from source, you can download the source tarball or zip file (from either Downloads or Xnt), unpack it into a temporary directory and then, from a shell or command prompt, run:
$ python[2] setup.py install [--user]
PyPi/ Pip
To install from PyPi, you will need pip. Once you have pip, you may only run:
$ pip[2] install Xnt [--user]
Linux/ Unix
If you install using the --user option in either source or PyPi installs you may need to add ~/.local/bin/ to your PATH environment variable.
Otherwise, you shall need do nothing more.
Windows
If on Windows, after installing you will need edit your PATH environment variable to include the <python_install_dir>\Scripts folder. After which, you will be all set to use Xnt.
Example build.py
Here is a simple build.py:
#!/usr/bin/env python from xnt import target from xnt.tasks import * from xnt.build import make @target def init(): mkdir("bin") @target def build(): init() make.ant("build") @target def clean(): rm("bin") @target def rebuild(): clean() build() @target def package(): rebuild() zip("bin", "packaged.zip") @target def default(): package()
As you can see, it really just is a Python script. There really isn’t anything really special happening. We just import some of the Xnt modules, and define some targets. When you call xnt, it will be loading this script and call the target specified by {target} or, if you don’t specify one, it will call the target named default.
Usage
Command Usage:
$ xnt [options] [target]+
Where [options] are one of the following:
-v: verbose, turn on logging
--version: print version and quit
And where [target] is any target method in your build.py file or:
Nothing; if no target is specified, Xnt will attempt to invoke the default target
list-targets: if this ‘special’ target is provided, Xnt will print all targets marked by the @target decorator and possibly their docstrings if they are defined
For more information about Xnt and the build in functions, see the Package Documentation.
Issues
If you find any issues or would like to request a feature, please visit Issues.
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