cbuild 2.0 - builder and preprocessor for modular c files

This project provides a build system for building programs and libraries in a modular C syntax. The syntax provides the following conveniences:

• Namespaces for symbols in the module
• Automatic header generation.
• Automatic Makefile generation

See syntax.md for module syntax documentation.

Version 2

Version 2.0 of the project represents a complete, from scratch rewrite of the project using the modular C syntax. The project is self-hosted meaning it is used to compile itself, but the generated .c .h and .mk files are left in the repository so that it can be built with a simple make.

Version 2.0 brings a number of enhancements over the original.

• Unit Tests - Not nearly everything is covered yet, but they exist and get built by Travis

• Better Lexer - Instead of using flex as the previous version did, this project uses a hand-coded lexer build after the style of Rob Pike's go template lexer.

• Real Parser - The first version just abused the lexer's features to determine syntax it would try to parse. As a result, many syntax errors would be pass through without any feedback, and get caught by the C compiler. The new hand coded parser is much better at catching syntax errors, and can provide useful error messages.

• Error Messages - Useful error messages for incorrect syntax.

Cloning Instructions:

The project employs submodules so to clone run:

git clone --recursive https://github.com/MobiusHorizons/cbuild.git

Build Instructions:

The project probably works on all posix based systems. It has been tested on OSX, Linux, and FreeBSD.

Dependencies:

• C compiler. # clang and gcc have been tested
• make # Tested with GNU Make and BSD Make

to build, simply run:

make
sudo make install # if you want

this will generate the cbuild binary.

Usage:

cbuild [command] [options] <module>

Options:

• -v verbose

Commands:

• build generates source files and builds the module (default)
• generate generates source files
• clean clean all generated sources, object files, and executables

the module is the source for either an executable or library you would like to turn into a c project. cbuild generates a .c and .h file for each module in the depencency tree of module. Furthermore it generates a .mk file which specifies the depencencies between all the generated files and their respective objects, it also contains a rule to build either a static library or an executable for modules where the name is main.