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It also obviously only knows how to build Java code.
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But it has no way of finding code stored in other parts of the filesystem (perhaps a library shared by several of our projects). javac is smart enough to look in subdirectories of our current directory to find code that we import. However, things become more complicated quickly as soon as our code expands. In the simplest case, this is all that we need. This instructs the Java compiler to take every Java source file in the current directory and turn it into a binary class file. As long as all of our source code is in the same directory, a command like this works fine: javac *.java After all, most of us probably didn’t use a build system when we were first learning to code-we probably started by invoking tools like gcc or javac directly from the command line, or the equivalent in an integrated development environment (IDE).

The need for a build system might not be immediately obvious. As we’ll illustrate in the next section, we run into problems of scaling without a proper build environment. What Happens Without a Build System?īuild systems allow your development to scale.

This chapter describes what Google considers to be a "modern build system" and how to use such systems. Although Google might be unique in its scale, any organization of any size can realize similar benefits by making proper use of a modern build system. We discuss LSCs in greater detail in Large-Scale Changes.Īll of this is possible only because of Google’s investment in its build system. (see Continuous Delivery).ĭeveloper changes are automatically tested when they’re sent for code review (see Critique: Google’s Code Review Tool) so that both the author and reviewer can immediately see any build or test issues caused by the change.Ĭhanges are tested again immediately before merging them into the trunk, making it much more difficult to submit breaking changes.Īuthors of low-level libraries are able to test their changes across the entire codebase, ensuring that their changes are safe across millions of tests and binaries.Įngineers are able to create large-scale changes (LSCs) that touch tens of thousands of source files at a time (e.g., renaming a common symbol) while still being able to safely submit and test those changes. Different teams do this at different rates: some teams push weekly, others daily, and others as fast as the system can create and validate new builds. Here’s a small sample of workflows that take advantage of our automated build system:Ĭode is automatically built, tested, and pushed to production without any human intervention. Nearly all of our development tools tie into the build system in some way, giving huge amounts of value to everyone working on our codebase. In fact, the large majority of builds at Google are triggered automatically rather than directly by engineers. Bazel’s main objective is to avoid having to choose between speed and correctness, providing a build system structured to ensure that it’s always possible to build code efficiently and consistently.īuild systems aren’t just for humans they also allow machines to create builds automatically, whether for testing or for releases to production. Many older build systems attempt to make trade-offs between speed and correctness by taking shortcuts that can lead to inconsistent builds. Correct Every time any developer runs a build on any machine, they should get the same result (assuming that the source files and other inputs are the same). A good build system will generally try to optimize for two important properties: Fast A developer should be able to type a single command to run the build and get back the resulting binary, often in as little as a few seconds. Purpose of a Build Systemįundamentally, all build systems have a straightforward purpose: they transform the source code written by engineers into executable binaries that can be read by machines. 2 In 2015, Google finally open sourced an implementation of Blaze named Bazel. The effort has been so successful that Blaze, the main component of the build system, has been reimplemented several different times by ex-Googlers who have left the company. 1 Google has spent a tremendous amount of engineering effort over its lifetime in creating its own build system from the ground up, with the goal of ensuring that our engineers are able to quickly and reliably build code.
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If you ask Google engineers what they like most about working at Google (besides the free food and cool products), you might hear something surprising: engineers love the build system. Software Engineering at Google Build Systems and Build Philosophy
