Build

Tool for building web projects (inspired by GNU Make).

Using build is a lot like make, but there are some key differences:

• It uses 2 spaces for indents instead of tabs.
• The node_modules/.bin is automatically in the path.
• Parallel deps are part of the syntax, not the CLI.
• Command input can be continued on subsequent lines using a 4 space indent.
• A lot more simplistic than GNU Make, does not include fancy features.

Install

npm i -D @jamen/build

With npx you can build projects without installing:

npx @jamen/build

Usage

To start, create a buildfile at the base of your project (next to package.json). This is where you write the tasks. Using build [name] starts the task by name, or the first task if no name is given.

Tasks are written like this:

foo:
  command --foo
  command --bar=123

bar: foo
  command
    --flag='Hello world'
    --flag2='Bar baz qux'

Or more formally:

name: ...deps
  command ...input
    ...input
    ...

Another thing to know is that deps can be run in parallel by prefixing @.

foo: bar @baz
  echo 'Hello world'

Also note you can run groups of parallel tasks by switching in and out of the above:

• foo @bar baz qux
• foo @bar @baz qux
• foo @bar @baz @qux

A dep without @ makes it wait for all the tasks before it to start.