Make replacement

[tim-lebedkov]

Is your feature request related to a problem? Please describe.

xmake is a good replacement for CMake, but it is not a good replacement for make. As far as I understand it lacks the simple file dependencies like

a.msi: a.exe
   create-msi.exe a.exe

Describe the solution you'd like

Top level rule for a file with dependencies on other files, tasks, targets, e.g.:

add_file_target("a.msi", ["a.exe"], function() {
execute_program("create-msi.exe", ["a.exe"]);
})

Describe alternatives you've considered

Using make

Additional context

[waruqi]

You need only call os.exec to do it in after_build().

target("a")
    set_kind("binary")
    add_files("src/*.c")
    after_build(function (target)
        os.execv("create-msi.exe", {target:targetfile()})
        -- or
        --  os.exec("create-msi.exe %s", target:targetfile())
    end)

As far as I understand it lacks the simple file dependencies like

You can also define a dependent phony target to do it.

target("a")
    set_kind("binary")
    add_files("src/*.c")

target("msi")
    set_kind("phony")
    add_deps("a") -- add dependences
    on_build(function (target)
        os.execv("create-msi.exe", {target:dep("a"):targetfile()})
    end)

Or you can also define a custom rule to do it.

-- define a custom msi rule
rule("msi")
    after_build(function (target)
        os.execv("create-msi.exe", {target:targetfile()})
    end)

target("a")
    set_kind("binary")
    add_files("src/*.c")
    add_rules("msi") --- apply msi rule to this target

And we can also add dependencies for multiple rules through add_deps()

rule("x")
    -- ...

rule("y")
    add_deps("x")
    -- ..

target("a")
    add_rules("y") -- it will apply rules: x and y

Using make

xmake does not rely on make, but it can also generate makefiles.

xmake project -k makefile

[tim-lebedkov]

What is obviously missing is the check that a.msi is up-to-date and also if this get more complicated. Basically a Makefile is a DAG where edges should be ordered according to the dependencies.

[waruqi]

What is obviously missing is the check that a.msi is up-to-date and also if this get more complicated. Basically a Makefile is a DAG where edges should be ordered according to the dependencies.

You can add a check through os.mtime/io.load/io.save ...

xmake/xmake/rules/lex_yacc/lex/xmake.lua

Line 83 in d9b466e

if not depend.is_changed(dependinfo, {lastmtime = os.mtime(objectfile), values = depvalues}) then

[tim-lebedkov]

Yes, I could do this. Lua is a programming language and allows everything. But this is a feature request for something that is easily done in make, but not in xmake.

[waruqi]

I added depend.on_changed() to simplify adding dependent files on dev branch. xmake update dev

    after_build(function (target)
        import("core.project.depend")
        depend.on_changed(function ()
            os.execv("create-msi.exe", {target:targetfile()})
        end, {files = target:targetfile()})
    end)