Build Tools for Build-Time Dependencies

Posted on 26 Oct 2021 by Boris Kolpackov

One of the main features in the just released build2 0.14.0 is support for build-time dependencies and the target/host configuration split that it necessitates. However, this support is of no use without any tools to depend on at build-time. So we've packaged a number of base tools that can be useful both in your own work as well as when packaging third-party projects.

For background on build-time dependencies including a complete example using xxd, refer to Build-Time Dependencies and Linked Configurations in the toolchain introduction. Note that all the tools listed below provide build2 metadata.

xxd: Vim xxd creates a hexdump of a given file or standard input. One notable xxd mode is -i|--include which generates a C array definition of the input that can be used to embed binary data into C/C++ programs. See Build-Time Dependencies and Linked Configurations for an example.
byacc: Berkeley yacc is a parser generator utility that reads a grammar specification from a file and generates an LR(1) parser. It is reasonably compatible with GNU bison while being lighter-weight and more portable.
We use byacc as a build-time dependency in the kconfig project.
reflex: reflex is a variant of flex, a tool for generating scanners (programs which recognize lexical patterns in text). It remains compatible with POSIX lex and is reasonably compatible with "new" flex while being lighter-weight and more portable.
We use reflex as a build-time dependency in the kconfig project.
openbsd-m4: OpenBSD m4 is an implementation of the POSIX m4 general-purpose macro processor that supports many GNU m4 extensions.
Note that currently this package does not support Windows.