Available Build Tools (make, etc)?

Question

There's a lot of questions on here regarding various niche build needs (.NET, continuous integration, etc) but, of course, my niche need is different.

Rather than asking a very specific question right now, I'd like a survey of available build tools (such as make, ant, etc) so I can ask a follow up question more intelligently if needed.

In your answer, please include:

• ONE build tool
• Link to the main page about that tool
• If you know some pros and cons (ie, runs on windows with cygwin, or .NET specific, etc) then list some (not required - the name and link are required)

If your build tool is already in an answer, comment on it adding pros/cons/limitations/experiences. Feel free to add as many answers as you like as long as they don't already exist - but don't put several build tools into one answer.

Please be aware that if you duplicate answers you may be downvoted - add additional information about a given build in the comments. Ideally these comments will be incorporated into the answer over time.

Answer 1

GNU Make

http://www.gnu.org/software/make/

Answer 2

Apache Ant

Pro:

• many task/plugins
• runs on many platforms
• very mature
• is supported by many IDEs, Continuous-Integration-Tools etc.

Con:

• requires Java

Answer 3

NAnt

http://nant.sourceforge.net/

Similar to Ant, a build tool for .Net

Answer 4

MSBuild

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/wea2sca5(VS.80).aspx

Answer 5

SCons

Build scripts are Python scripts. Supposed to work on Linux, Windows, Mac OS X.

Answer 6

Apache Maven

Pros:

• Automatic dependency management
• Utilizes convention over configuration (enforces consistent project directory structures)
• Projects that use maven can be built in minutes
• Excellent support for standard java/JEE project builds
• Works well in a team environment (supports "team" configurations)
• Built in release/versioning concepts
• Integrates with popular Java IDEs
• Growing support in java OSS community

Cons:

• Steep learning curve (esp. compared to Ant)
• Poor online documentation (the new book is excellent though)
• Sometimes surprising behavior
• Very java-centric
• XML configuration driven

Answer 7

Rake

Ruby version of make

Pros:

• Clean idiomatic ruby syntax
• Rake files are written in ruby, so leverages ruby itself rather than proprietary file format or XML
• Ruby on Rails tightly integrated with it

Cons:

• Requires ruby, which is not always available
• No built-in packaging support/versioning/dependency management (see rubygems)

Answer 8

CruiseControl/CruiseControl .Net

http://cruisecontrol.sourceforge.net/

Pros

• Can use various build and TDD tools depending on version chosen
• Automate when builds happen and what kind - full release build or changed code build
• Can automatically run tests (nUnit, jUnit, Fitnesse, etc.) on a build to ensure that all tests still pass when new code is checked into the project.
• Integrates with source control
• Error reporting and notification when builds fail

Cons

• Error reporting isn't always in a nice pretty to read format
• Set up of projects should be well thought out and all projects monitored should use certain patterns to make integration setup more efficient.

Answer 9

CMake

Cross-platform build system generator. It can generate Makefile or project files for Visual Studio, Eclipse CDT, KDevelop, Code::Blocks, etc. Automatic dependency analysis for C, C++, Fortran, Java.

Answer 10

premake

Build script generator. Uses Lua to describe the build. It can generate Makefile or project files for Visual Studio, Code::Blocks, CodeLite, SharpDevelop, MonoDevelop, etc. Built-in support for C, C++, C#, including things like resources and ASP.NET. Mono support.

Answer 11

PSake (pronounced "Sake")

Pros -

• Powershell

Cons -

• Powershell :)

This project is fairly new, looks interesting, and would be very powerful, since it's ".NET at the command line". Unfortunately, I don't know very many people who take the time to learn Powershell.

Answer 12

Jam family.

• Jam
• FTJam
• BJam

BJam is based on FTJam, which in turn is based on Jam. Small, fast, portable. Automatic dependency analysis for C, C++. It is not a generator -- it does not generate any Makefile or other build files for secondary build systems.

Answer 13

FinalBuilder

Pros

• Visual and GUI-oriented unlike ant or make
• Lots of built-in actions
• Script builder for your own actions
• Integrates easily with cc.net

Cons

• Only runs on Windows
• Not free, but you get good value for your money

They also have a tool called Automise that does more system-oriented tasks.

Answer 14

Team City

Pros

• All available here

Cons

• Can be memory intensive

Answer 15

cons

Pros:

• Uses Perl, if you like that sort of thing
• Haven't used it otherwise :-)

Cons:

• Hard to Google for!
• Not actively developed?

Answer 16

UppercuT -

Some good explanations here: UppercuT

Pros -

• Super easy to get started - Automated Builds as easy as (1) solution name, (2) source control path, (3) company name for most projects!!!
• Limited knowledge of NAnt necessary.

Cons -

• Only available for .NET

Answer 17

NUBuild (pronounced "New-Build")

This is the latest and pretty advanced .Net build tool (a very intelligent one) called NUBuild that allows you to build VB.Net and C# projects. Its extremely lightweight, open source and at the same time easy to setup and provides almost no-touch maintenance.

• Easy to use command line interface
• Ability to target all .Net framework version i.e. 1.1, 2.0, 3.0 and 3.5
• Supports XML based configuration
• Supports both project and file references
• Automatically generates the “complete ordered build list” for a given project
• Ability to detect and display circular dependencies Perform parallel build
• Ability to handle proxy assemblies
• Easily integrated with Cruise-Control.Net continuous integration system
• Version management capability
• Notification feature

http://nubuild.codeplex.com/

It's best the build tool we have seen so far!

Answer 18

Bakefile

Bakefile is cross-platform, cross-compiler native makefiles generator. It takes compiler-independent description (XML) of build tasks as input and generates native makefile (autoconf's Makefile.in, Visual C++ project, bcc makefile etc.).

Bakefile's task is to generate native makefiles, so that people can keep using their favorite tools. There are other cross-platform make solutions, but they either aren't native and require the user to use unfamiliar tools (Boost.Build) or they are too limited (qmake).