The Build Environment

Build Environment Notes

A software reuse environment is composed of these fundamental parts:

A build environment is the space in which various tools such as compilers and linkers are applied to source files to produce an executable. This space is dominated by the "make" tool. The make tool accepts an input file that contains rules expressing relationships between input (source) and output (binary) files and the tools used to perform the transformation. Unfortunately, the construction and maintenance of these makefiles is tedious and error prone at best.

BENV is a framework that automates the production of executables from source code contained in the repository. BENV uses the GNU make utility, and a set of makefile fragments and scripts to greatly simplify the build process. The purpose of BENV is to free the software developer from the burden of makefile maintenance.

The old man and the boys.

What does it do? What problem does it solve?
How does it work?
How is it used?

mike@mnmoran.org