buildr

Buildr, a simple, powerful and efficient build tool

Show me your build, I'll tell you how healthy your project is

• Jean-Philippe Caruana
• Orange - Multimedia Business Services
• http://buildr.barreverte.fr/en/

Today

• we'll talk about build
• we'll see some code (a little)
• I hope you'll want to try it
• ... and adopt it

Common build tools

Maven

• the bright side :-)
  • standardization (sources, repos, goals)
  • very widespread
• the dark side :-(
  • slooooow
  • XML
  • black box
  • hard to extend
  • non incremental build
  • does too much and sometimes bites off more than it can chew

Objective comparison : a few commands

maven	buildr
mvn eclipse:eclipse	buildr eclipse
mvn package -Dmaven.test.skip=true	buildr package test=no
mvn test -Dtest=MyTest	buildr test=MyTest
maven test:match -Dmaven.test.match="*MyTest*"

Objective comparison : a few figures

	maven 1	buildr
Condor : SLOC	1053	750
Condor : number of files	43	1
Condor : total build time	12 min	2 min 30
AVSP : SLOC	19183	878
AVSP : number of files	188	1
AVSP : total build time	around 1/2h	7 min
AVSP : releasing	two people binome 1/2 day (unsafe)	5 min (safe)

Testimonies found on the Internet : SLOC

maven2 or ant	buildr
4652	698
768	28

VERSION_NUMBER = "1.0.0-SNAPSHOT"
GROUP = 'barreverte.fr'
COPYRIGHT = 'Barre Verte !'

repositories.remote << 'http://www.ibiblio.org/maven2/'

desc 'buildr session'
define 'example' do
  project.version = VERSION_NUMBER
  project.group = GROUP

  compile.using :target=>'1.5', :other=>['-encoding', 'ISO8859_1'], :deprecation=>false, :debug=>true

  desc 'A lib'
  define 'A' do
    package :jar
  end

  desc 'B lib'
  define 'B' do
    compile.with project('A')
    package :jar
  end

  desc 'D lib'
  define 'D' do
    package :jar
  end

  desc 'final deliverable'
  define 'C' do
    compile.with projects('A', 'B', 'D')
    package :war
  end
end 

examples

• add dependencies :

  desc 'common infrastructure'
  define 'commons' do
    compile.with LOG4J, MYSQL, SERVLET_API, COMMONS_LANG, XSTREAM
    test.with JDOM, 'jspapi:jsp-api:jar:2.0', MOCKRUNNER, SPRING, SPRING_MOCK, MOCKITO, FEST
    package :jar
  end 

• group dependencies :

  SPRING_DAO = Buildr::group('spring-beans', 'spring-core', 'spring-dao', 'spring-jdbc',
    :under=>'org.springframework', :version=>'1.2.6') 

• non maven2/buildr standard sources :

  test.resources.from _(:src, :test, :data) 

• custom archive format :

  generated_lib = package :jar
  deliverable = package :tgz
  deliverable.include _('src/main/batch'), :as=>'batch' 
  deliverable.path('batch/lib').include generated_lib, compile.dependencies 

• assert your binaries :

  check deliverable, "scala-library jar should be included, please check that your
  $SCALA_HOME points to a  valid folder" do
    it.should contain('batch/lib/scala-library.jar')
  end 

• customize file permissions :

  chmod 0755, Dir[_('src/main/avsp-batch/bin/*')]
  chmod 0644, FileList[_('src/main/avsp-batch/etc/**/*.properties')] 

• rake tasks dependencies :

  task :fitnesse => [:prerequis_fitnesse, :fitnesse_wiki] 

• painless integration with Ant tasks :

  task :fitnesse_wiki do |t|
    ant(t.name) do |ant|
      ant.taskdef :name=>'start_fitnesse', :classname=>'fitnesse.ant.StartFitnesseTask',
  :classpath=>FITNESSE_JAR
      ant.start_fitnesse :wikidirectoryrootpath=>_('src/main'), :fitnesseport=>8082 
    end
  end 

• merge jars :

  stubs = package :jar, :file=>_('target/stubs.jar')
  stubs.merge artifacts(COMMONS_HTTPCLIENT, COMMONS_LANG, LOG4J, project('commons-test')) 

• add ant tasks before a buildr goal :

  compile.enhance ['my_pretty_ant_task'] 

• test setup :

  test.setup { Rake::Task['a_nice_rake_task'].execute } 

• customize manifest file :

  manifest['Implementation-Version'] = project.version
  manifest['Copyright']              = COPYRIGHT
  manifest['My-Custom-Field']  = ANY_VALUE 

• maven2 repositories :

  repositories.remote << 'http://www.ibiblio.org/maven2/'
  repositories.remote << 'http://mirrors.ibiblio.org/pub/mirrors/maven2'
  repositories.remote << 'http://maven01b.serveur:8081/nexus/content/groups/public'
  repositories.release_to = { :url=>'sftp://maven01b.serveur:/var/maven-projets/maven',
    :username=>'robert.johnson', :password=>'Xroads' } 

Dark side of buildr

• hard to install (gems)
• dynamic code base (can be unstable)
• you'll need to translate your maven artifacts
• not widespread

Neighbours

buildr, build like you code

• Gradle : a better way to build (http://www.gradle.org/)
• sbt : a simple build tool for Scala projects (http://code.google.com/p/simple-build-tool/)

References

• offical website : buildr.apache.org
• Martin Fowler "DSL for builds"
• Why I don't like maven
• Why I don't use maven
• this session : buildr.barreverte.fr/en/ and on github