build2 is a native, cross-platform build system designed for complex software projects. It provides a terse, mostly declarative build language and a general DAG-based model, with extensive support for developing C and C++ software.
The build system is part of the wider build2 toolchain, which also includes package and project dependency managers, but it can be installed and used independently.
This is free and open source software.
Key Features
- Offers a concise, mostly declarative build description language.
- Uses a dependency graph to perform parallel and incremental builds.
- Provides extensive support for C and C++ projects.
- Works with GCC, Clang, MSVC and MinGW toolchains.
- Supports executables, static libraries and shared libraries.
- Offers separate source and output directory configurations.
- Supports cross-compilation and multiple build configurations.
- Provides configurable build variables, target types, rules and functions.
- Can be extended with dynamically loaded build system modules.
- Includes facilities for testing, installation and distribution.
- Integrates with the bpkg package manager and bdep project manager.
- Can also handle non-C/C++ projects and general DAG-based operations.
- Cross-platform support – runs on Linux, macOS, Windows and FreeBSD
Website: github.com/build2/build2
Support:
Developer: build2 authors
License: MIT License
build2 is written in C++. Learn C++ with our recommended free books and free tutorials.
Related Software
| Build Systems | |
|---|---|
| Cargo | Rust package manager |
| gulp | Toolkit to automate & enhance your workflow |
| Bazel | Build and test your multi-language, multi-platform projects |
| Apache Maven | Build automation tool used primarily for Java projects |
| Gradle | Build tool with a focus on build automation and support for multi-language |
| Meson | Next-generation build system |
| CMake | Family of tools designed to build, test and package software |
| Buck2 | Encourages the creation of small, reusable modules |
| Leiningen | Automating Clojure projects |
| Grunt | JavaScript Task Runner |
| Ninja | Small build system with a focus on speed |
| xmake | Cross-platform build utility based on Lua |
| SCons | Software construction tool |
| Pants | Scalable build system for monorepos |
| PHing | Build system based on Apache Ant |
| Rake | make-like build utility for Ruby |
| Apache Ant | Tool for automating software build processes |
| Cabal | Common Architecture for Building Applications and Libraries |
Read our verdict in the software roundup.
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