GYP can Generate Your Projects.
It is a pre-build system that uses a json config to generate optimized project files for various build tools like make, xcode, visual studio.
For example, it is able to generate make or scons files that run fast.
It is also able to generate xcode and visual studio files.
It's a bit like cmake, except: http://code.google.com/p/gyp/wiki/GypVsCMake
This demo shows how to build:
- a hello world c++ library (called 'mylib')
- a command line program that uses/links to it
- a node.js module that depends on mylib via it gyp file
See also:
First install gyp if you do not have it already. It's just python:
svn checkout http://gyp.googlecode.com/svn/trunk/ gyp
cd gyp
sudo python setup.py install
Now you should have the gyp program on your PATH:
$ which gyp
/usr/local/bin/gyp
Now grab this sample project:
git clone git://github.com/springmeyer/hello-gyp.git
cd hello-gyp
First, it's important to remember that simple codebases, like this "myapp" hello world, don't actually need a fancy build system.
You can build the library and program "by hand" like:
mkdir manual-build
# build static library
g++ -static -I./include -c ./src/implementation.cc -o manual-build/mylib.o
ar rcsT manual-build/libmylib.a manual-build/mylib.o
# build program and link the library
g++ -o manual-build/myapp -I./include bin/myapp.cc -L./manual-build -lmylib
$ ./manual-build/myapp
hello
But, as your projects grow, or you wish to have other projects build against this project, gyp can help immensely.
gyp mylib.gyp --depth=. -f make --generator-output=./build/makefiles
V=1 make -C ./build/makefiles/
$ ./build/makefiles/out/Release/myapp
hello
And the node module:
npm install node-gyp
node_modules/.bin/node-gyp configure build
Test the node module:
$ node -e "console.log(require('./build/Release/modulename.node').hello())"
hello
gyp mylib.gyp --depth=. -f scons --generator-output=./build/sconsfiles
scons -C ./build/sconsfiles/
$ ./build/sconsfiles/Release/myapp
hello
gyp mylib.gyp --depth=. -f xcode --generator-output=./build/xcodefiles
xcodebuild -project ./build/xcodefiles/mylib.xcodeproj
# xcode does not respect subdirectory so `build` goes into the main directory
$ ./build/Release/myapp
hello
Ninja is a build system designed to be ultra fast.
Install it like:
git clone git://github.com/martine/ninja.git
cd ninja
./bootstrap.py
cp ninja /usr/local/bin/
Make sure it works:
$ ninja
ninja: no work to do.
Now go back to the hello-gyp project folder and build the sample:
gyp mylib.gyp --depth=. -f ninja
ninja -v -C out/Release/ -f build.ninja
$ ./out/Release/myapp
hello
Note, this assumes you've downloaded and installed the free 2010 C++ studio.
python gyp/gyp mylib.gyp --depth=. -f msvs -G msvs_version=2010
msbuild mylib.sln
c:\hello-gyp>Release\myapp.exe
hello
Other formats are some some gyp-specific debugging output