Span - Cross-Language Dependency Manager

Span is a high-performance dependency management tool. It provides a unified interface for managing project dependencies across different languages and ecosystems, with a focus on speed and efficiency through local caching and concurrent operations.

Key Features

• Modern C++23 codebase: Utilizes the latest C++ standards for performance and safety.
• Extensible architecture: Easily add support for new package managers by implementing the Manager interface.
• Concurrent operations: Uses a thread pool to install and link multiple packages in parallel.
• Efficient caching: Maintains a local cache of packages to avoid redundant downloads and speed up subsequent installations.
• High-speed parsing: Integrates the simdjson library for fast parsing of dependency files.
• Cross-platform: Designed to work on Windows, macOS, and Linux.

Requirements

• A C++23 compatible compiler (e.g., GCC 11+, Clang 14+, MSVC 19.29+).
• CMake (version 3.23 or higher).
• Git.

Building the Project

1. Clone the repository:

   git clone <repository-url>
   cd dev

2. Configure the build:

   cmake -B build -S .

   You can enable sanitizers for debugging by adding -DENABLE_SANITIZERS=ON.

3. Compile the project:

   cmake --build build

The main executable dev will be located in the build/ directory.

Usage

The tool is designed to be run from the command line. You can install dependencies for a project by pointing to its directory.

Example:

./build/dev install

The tool will automatically detect the project type (e.g., Composer) and begin installing its dependencies using the local cache.

Contributing

To add support for a new package manager:

1. Create your new manager class header and implementation in include/packages/ and src/packages/ respectively. Ensure your class inherits from dev::packages::Manager.
2. Implement the required virtual methods:
   • isProjectType(): Detect if a directory is a valid project for your manager.
   • getManagerName(): Return the name of the language/ecosystem (e.g., "composer").
   • getInstallDirectory(): Return the name of the dependency directory (e.g., "vendor").
   • getDependencyFiles(): Return a list of files that define dependencies (e.g., package.json).
   • getInstalledVersions(): Return a map of packages and their versions, usually parsed from a lock file.
   • installDependency(): Logic for downloading and caching a single package.

That's it! The build system will automatically detect your new files, generate the necessary registration code, and include it in the final executable. There is no need to manually edit any other files to register your manager.

Dependencies

This project relies on the following third-party libraries, which are included as submodules or fetched by CMake:

• simdjson: A high-performance JSON parsing library.
• CLI11: A powerful command-line parser for C++.