Part II. Normal Operation

In this part of the manual, we discuss the standard features of abuild. For most ordinary build problems, these chapters provide all the information you will need. A few advanced topics are presented here. Where appropriate, they include cross references to later parts of the document where functionality is covered in more depth. By the end of this part, you should have a reasonably complete understanding of the structure of abuild's build trees, and a fairly complete picture of abuild's overall functionality. You will know enough about abuild to be able to use it for tasks of moderate complexity.

Table of Contents

4. Build Items and Build Trees
4.1. Build Items as Objects
4.2. Build Item Files
4.3. Build Trees
4.4. Build Forests
4.5. Special Types of Build Items
4.6. Integrating with Third-Party Software
5. Target Types, Platform Types, and Platforms
5.1. Platform Structure
5.2. Object-Code Platforms
5.3. Output Directories
6. Build Item Dependencies
6.1. Direct and Indirect Dependencies
6.2. Build Order
6.3. Build Item Name Scoping
6.4. Simple Build Tree Example
7. Multiple Build Trees
7.1. Using Tree Dependencies
7.2. Top-Level Abuild.conf
7.3. Tree Dependency Example
8. Help System
9. Telling Abuild What to Build
9.1. Build Targets
9.2. Build Sets
9.2.1. Example Build Set Invocations
9.3. Using build-also for Top-level Builds
9.4. Building Reverse Dependencies
9.5. Traits
9.5.1. Declaring Traits
9.5.2. Specifying Traits at Build Time
9.5.3. Example Trait Invocations
9.6. Target Selection
9.7. Build Set and Trait Examples
9.7.1. Common Code Area
9.7.2. Tree Dependency Example: Project Code Area
9.7.3. Trait Example
9.7.4. Building Reverse Dependencies
9.7.5. Derived Project Example
10. Integration with Automated Test Frameworks
10.1. Test Targets
10.2. Integration with QTest
10.3. Integration with JUnit
10.4. Integration with Custom Test Frameworks
11. Backing Areas
11.1. Setting Up Backing Areas
11.2. Resolving Build Items to Backing Areas
11.3. Integrity Checks
11.4. Task Branch Example
11.5. Deleted Build Item
12. Explicit Read-Only and Read/Write Paths
13. Command-Line Reference
13.1. Basic Invocation
13.2. Variable Definitions
13.3. Informational Options
13.4. Control Options
13.5. Output Options
13.6. Build Options
13.7. General Targets
14. Survey of Additional Capabilities