RICHBUILD

A Header only library to make compiling C projects at least a tiny bit easier. Is this one of those projects where in hindsight it probably would have been quicker to just compile things yourself? Probably.

What it offers?

The primary goal for RichBuild was to remove to need to keep adding files into your compile command. Picture this, you start with a main.c file so you add that to your build script (I normall use a shell file). You keep working and oh you need to add another C file to link with, so you have to update your script etc...

RichBuild remove that step by automatically getting all the C files in the current directory and adding them onto your compile command. All you have to do is write a quick richBuild.c file where you define your config. From there the only file you need to compile and run is the richBuild file, and then your actual program executable.

How to use it?

1. Download the richBuild.h header and place it in your project.
2. Make a richBuild.c file and use the below example.

#define RICHBUILD_IMPLEMENTATION
#include "richBuild.h"

#define cflags "-Wall"
#define executable_name "main"

void BUILD_PROJECT() {
  const char* files = READ_FILES();
  COMPILE("gcc", files, cflags, executable_name, NULL);
  CLEANUP();
}

int main() {
  BUILD_PROJECT();
  return 0;
}

You are required to:

• Define the Implementation (Line 1).
• Include the rich build header (Line 2).
• Define your cflags if you don't want any define it as an empty string ("").
• Choose the name of your executable.
• Feel free to name the build project function in any way you want.
• Use the READ_FILES, COMPILE and CLEANUP macros
• Remember to call your function.

3. Compile the richBuild.c file in any way you like.
4. Run the richBuild executable
5. Run your program.

Packages/ Linking

Sometimes you may want to add packages to the compile command. You can add those as the final argument of the COMPILE macro.

#define cflags "-Wall"
#define executable_name "main"
#define packages "-lm"

void BUILD_PROJECT() {
  const char* files = READ_FILES();
  COMPILE("gcc", files, cflags, executable_name, packages);
  CLEANUP();
}

Currently Builtin Package Configs

• Raylib

COMPILE("gcc", files, cflags, executable_name, RAYLIB);

NOTE: There is currently no way to add builtin packages along with others so you will have to compose those yourself via the package argument <3

Excluding Files

Excluding files is as simple as using the EXCLUDE macro.

#define RICHBUILD_IMPLEMENTATION
#include "richBuild.h"

#define cflags "-Wall"
#define executable_name "main"

void BUILD_PROJECT() {
  const char* files = READ_FILES();
  EXCLUDE(&files, "file.c", "anotherfile.c");
  COMPILE("gcc", files, cflags, executable_name, NULL);
  CLEANUP();
}

int main() {
  BUILD_PROJECT();
  return 0;
}

How it works.

The Library is an STB style single header library so you are required to define the implementation. Example and explaination of STB style libraries here. The library is comprised of a set of macro definitions which call to other functions.

First we use the READ_FILES macro to read the .c files in the file system (current directory). This will ignore any files with the name richBuild.c so make sure that is the name of your config file for RichBuild. The names of all the C files will be appended onto the compile command for you.

Next calling the compile macro we pass the name of the compiler we want to use, the list of files, name of your executable, the final argument are any packages you would like to add such as math via the "-lm" flag.

Finally we call the CLEANUP macro because yes richBuild allocates memory to store the name of your files, so we need to free it after.

A Word about Windows

I tested, using wine and wingw-w64 and it broke completely, so I have now removed the code for interfacing the windows API, I don't want to fix it. Use a C compiler from WSL to run.

References

The main inspiration here was Tsoding more specifically (https://github.com/tsoding/nob.h) as much as RichBuild isn't anything like Nob, Nob was where the inspiration came from. Tsodings streams have always been and always will be my biggest source of motivation and inspiration.