Fake.Targets.Strong

Improve compiler safety by refering to FAKE targets as values, not strings.

Example

Basic Project-based

See build.fs

A short sample is

open Fake.StrongTargets

let clean = 
    Target.ByRef.create "clean" <| fun _ ->
        //...

let build = 
    Target.ByRef.create "build" <| fun _ ->
        //...
    |> Target.ByRef.dependsOn [clean]

Targets.ByRef.runOrDefault build

Note that creating a target still results in a global target registration.

Shorter Module Path

If you don't like writing Target.ByRef.methodName or just ByRef.methodName then you can alias the module

module TRef = Target.ByRef

let clean = TRef.create "clean" ...

Fsx/script usage

Usage in a script-based build is the same, just reference the nuget package.

#r "paket:
nuget Fake.StrongTargets //"

open Fake.StrongTargets

...

Separated Build Dependencies

I showed Target dependencies specified alongside target declaration, but they can as easily be separated

// open the module just for brevity sake
open open Fake.StrongTargets.Target.ByRef 

// declare deps as a single tree
default' 
|> dependsOn [
    clean
    test |> dependsOn [
        build |> dependsOn [clean]
    ]
] 
|> ignore

This approach can also be used for different dependencies based on different conditional statements.

Operators

There are also operators defined in Fake.StrongTargets.Operators equivalent to the basic fake operators

• left dependsdependent <== [dependencies]
• right depends dependency ==> dependent
• left soft depends dependent <=? dependency
• right soft depends dependency ?=> dependent

So you could still define target dependencies similar to what is normally shown in the Fake docs.

open Fake.StrongTargets.Operators

clean ==> build ==> test ==> default'

Note that you can't use both the string-based operators and these operators at the same time because the definitions conflict

Project Status

This repo is a proof of concept, but it works and is low risk since it just aliases a few commands in Fake.Core.Targets.

If it's popular enough I may contribute it to FAKE and/or pursue an API that separates target declaration from global registration. Feedback is appreciated!