Re: asynchronous make(1), anyone?

[Eric Radman <ericshane%eradman.com@localhost>]

On Thu, Apr 12, 2012 at 10:55:26AM -0500, David Young wrote:
> On Wed, Apr 11, 2012 at 08:15:00PM -0500, Eric Radman wrote:
> > Yes, I've been looking for such a tool for some time, and finally wrote
> > such utility to do just this:
> > 
> > https://bitbucket.org/eradman/entr/
> > 
> >   Event Notify Test Runner
> > 
> >   entr - a utility for running arbitrary commands when files change.
> >   Uses kqueue(2) to avoid polling.
> 
> Looks like it is a piece of the puzzle, but how will we supply it with
> the sources used for each make(1) target?

I would guess that the projects we're working on are very different, but
I think we have similar goals in mind, namely to cut down on manual
actions, thereby reducing the build/test/debug cycle.

The programmer is often the only one who understands the relationship
between components, so this utility simply expects him to provide the
relevant inputs and an action that should follow. For example, if
project2 needs to be rebuilt after after project1 if either is modified,
you might kick off the build script like this

$ entr util/build_proj_1_then_2.sh
project1/src/
project2/src/
^D

Managing the complexity of a build or test setup still has to be
scripted, this utility simply attempts to provide a minimal mechanism
for tightening the critical feedback loop.

Eric