Thanks for taking interest in builder! This project was designed to not
only make it easier to compile software, but to also enable a quick way
to distribute the means of doing so. Imagine having a very small tarball
that contains all the information to automatically obtain the source
code, apply patches, install the necessary software to compile, compile
the software (multi-pass is also possible), and finally, if desired,
bundle all of that into nice distribution packages for you - all just
by typing a short command! Well that's exactly what builder can do!
TODO
- add the construction of a post-build .info file
To Install:
1. cd /path/to/builder
2. sudo install.sh
To Use:
1. builder --help
Builder works with a variety of popular methods of compilation including
autoconf, autogen, bootstrap, cmake, scons, and a default (configure,
make, make install). There is even an option to create a custom method
if you require it. This allows you the freedom to choose which one will
work best for you and your project.
While builder does not make any stage of development easier for you, its
main design goal is to make is VERY easy for an end user to compile your
software, or aid in the rapid distribution of your project to qualified
package maintainers of the various Linux distros. By constructing a
(generic) builder profile for your work, you are helping to streamline
the steps necessary for them to tailor your software to their specific
environment. We would encourage any developer to include this as a
tarball packaged with their source code, or at least an option to
download from their website.
It is important to note that this software will not magically determine
all of the steps above and do it for you. Someone has to actually
perform these steps initially (which ideally would be the software
developer themself). This project is meant to provide an easy way to use
the contributions of others who have taken those steps, and allow other
package maintainers of different distros to quickly tweak the software
building process to fit their own system. By getting a builder profile
for a package, it is trivial to modify the compile parameters, add or
remove patches, add or remove graphics, GUI desktop files, and other
items to specifically tailor a software build.
To assist in the packaging process, there are multiple scripts that
can optionally be executed to perform any desired tasks along the way.
See the wiki, the included 'NOTES' file, or '--help' output for more
information.
Below is the list of operations that are executed during a builder run.
As you can see there are several hooks that allow for external scripts
to be run that can do any additional steps that are desired.
1. Process passed switches
2. Adjust variable values for global and target package personalization
3. System checks to make sure everything exists and is writable
4. Install compile-time dependencies
5. Optionally obtain the source code
6. Apply any included patches to source code
7. [hook] Optionally execute pre.compile script
8. Compile process (configure)
9. [hook] Optionally execute post.configure script
10. Compile process (make, make check, ..., make install)
11. Copy in any 'extra' files
12. [hook] Optionally execute post.compile script
13. Optionally separate contents into individual package types
14. Apply file and directory ownership and permissions
15. [hook] Optionally execute pre.package script
16. Create the various packages
17. Copy the files into the local repo
18. [hook] Optionally execute post.package script
19. Cleanup
20. Initiate the next pass if designated
2025/10/15
- Updated the --help output to match current switches and added sections:
Build Software Steps
Profile Creation Steps
Profile Contents Key
- Added the -E action
- Started the -T action
- Rearranged several switches:
-D to -C
-d to -D
-L to -d
-S to -c
2025/10/16
- Combined -c, -C, -d to be -c "dev|dir|repo"
- Reverted -D to -d
- Moved -S switch to -C action
- Changed -U to -u
- Added the -C action (and modifying packaging code to implement)
- Added the -R action
- Completed the -T action
- Added r64 CPU arch type
- Started work to allow creation of just one package instead of multiple
2025/10/17
- Removed -n and made it the last parameter
- Added the -I action
- Moved -p to -N
- Moved -s to -F
- Reversed the action and switch parameter case to match pax
- Implemented SPM_MAK variable for generic package manager creation
- Expanded the sample builder.conf.TC file
- Migrated existing package code to 'pax' (since it was distro specific)
- Completed work to allow single package creation
2025/10/20
- Implemented '-C info' with it using URL_INFO
- Updated '-C dev' to use URL_CODE instead of URL_INFO
- Implemented URL_REPO to be used with '-C repo'
- Cleaned up the CODE variable usage
- Removed calls to DIR_CODE as it was not being used
- Updated the '--help' output Notes section
- Updated the builder.conf.TC to use URL_REPO instead of URL_CODE
- Updated the NOTES file to better explain "Building with builder"
Since we are working with several many projects (13 on github alone),
we are going to provide an anticipated timeline of releases using
internal staff. Obviously outside contribution will advance these
forecasted dates.
2025 Oct - completion of ModuleMaker for webWorks
2025 Dec - migration of existing webWorks modules using ModuleMaker
2026 Jan - migration of Tracker into webWorks and deprecation of
of standalone project
2026 Feb - update paged to 2018 code base from ACME
- update pax to work with (TC) TinyCore Linux
- apply any patches for bug fixes to existing projects
2026 Mar - update web.libs for dittodata and web.de
2026 Jul - move code from web.de into cli.de and update the former
to use the latter via XML communication
2026 - rest of 2026 tbd