Nore

No More than a C build system for clang, gcc and msvc.

Let's start ...

# make a new directory for your C application
# 
$ make your-c-app-dir
$ cd your-c-app-dir

# run bootstrap from github, it will generate a configure file in current directory
#
$ bash <(curl https://raw.githubusercontent.com/junjiemars/nore/master/bootstrap.sh)

# generate a C application skeleton
#
$ ./configure --new

$ ./configure

$ make test

Story

Why we need another C build system?

Frequently, I want to know how things works in machine level, so I need to try something in C on popular platforms, but sadly, there are no handy weapons to do that.

I known there are already aswsome tools existing, but the key question is how to easy build C code in varied OS by varied Compilers, among those things I just pick the most critical ones: Make and Shell.

So the story begins ...

Keep things simple: classic workflow (configure, make and make install).
Write, Run and Build code on anywhere: Linux, Darwin, Windows or Docker.
Easy to try some new ideas but have no more unnecessary.

Cooking

Configuration
- On Unix-like Platform
- On Windows Platform
Getting Started
Feature Testing
Tips

Configuration

On Unix-like Platform

There are no installation process just setup bash and make environment.

The most simplest way to configure is go into your C application directory and run

$ bash <(curl https://raw.githubusercontent.com/junjiemars/nore/master/bootstrap.sh)

configure Nore on Linux ...

 + checking make ... found
 + checking nore ... found
 + generating configure ... ok
 + generating ~/.cc-env.sh ... ok

... elpased 0 seconds.

then all had done.

On Windows Platform

On Windows, because there are no bash by default, so we need to install one, Git Bash easy to install and use. In the installation of Git Bash, select unix compatible tools option box. Run bash in any CMD or Git Bash, then

$ bash <(curl https://raw.githubusercontent.com/junjiemars/nore/master/bootstrap.sh)

configure Nore on MINGW64_NT-10.0 ...

 + checking make ... no found
 + checking bash environment ... found
 + installing make ... ok
 + checking nore ... found
 + generating configure ... ok
 + generating ~/.cc-env.sh ... ok

... elpased 9 seconds.

# generate ~/.cc-env.bat for MSVC environment
$ ~/.cc-env.sh

If want to use Windows C/C++ toolchains, you need to install Windows SDK + C/C++ Build Tools or install Visual Studio.

Getting Started

$ ./configure --help

On Windows, if use MSVC environment, we need host MSVC environment first

# switch to Command Prompt
$ cmd

# host MSVC environment
> %userprofile%/.cc-env.bat

# switch back to SHELL
> bash

New a Skeleton

# generate a new project's skeleton
$ ./configure --new

checking for OS
 + MINGW64_NT-10.0 2.9.0(0.318/5/3) x86_64
checking for C compiler ... found
 + using Microsoft Visual C++ compiler
 + msvc version: 19.13.26129 for x64
checking for WinNT:10.0:x86_64 specific features

creating out/Makefile
 + generating src directory ... ok
 + generating src/version file ... ok
 + generating src/configure file ... ok
 + generating src/Makefile file ... ok

Configuration summary
  platform: WinNT:10.0:x86_64
  compiler: msvc 19.13.26129 for x64
  prefix= D:/opt/run
  out= out
  new= YES
  std= YES:
  symbol= YES: -Z7
  debug= YES
  optimize= NO
  cpu= NO
  error= YES: -WX
  warn= YES: -W4
  verbose= NO
  has= .

Configure existing one

For existing C project at

$ cd <existing-c-project-root>

$ ./configure --src-dir=<source-directory>

Build and Test

$ ./configure

$ make

$ make test

Following the prompt of configure and make, change the options of configure or modify src/Makefile.

Multiple Targets

Suppose project P has A and B two targets, one is a Executable, the other is a Library

$ ./configure --has-A --has-B

Multiple Projects

All projects can use only one Nore.

Suppose there are A, B and C projects, those projects use one Nore clone.

# clone Nore in a directory, annoted as <Nore>

# in A project directory:
$ cd <A>
$ <Nore>/bootstrap.sh

# in B project directory:
$ cd <B>
$ <Nore>/bootstrap.sh

# in C project directory:
$ cd <C>
$ <Nore>/bootstrap.sh

Symbol Table

Nore's builtin exportable symbols can be replaced via --symbol-table option, which let Nore easy to port to existing C projects.

Example: some tools annote DARWIN in C source code or make file as __DARWIN__ , but the default in Nore is DARWIN, you can change that to __DARWIN__.

$ ./configure --symbol-table=<symbol-table-file-name-your-favor>

# if <symbol-table-file-name-your-favor> does not existing, 
# Nore will dump the symbol table into it. Otherwise, Nore will import 
# <symbol-table-file-name-your-favor>

# change the <symbol-table-file-name-your-favor> then
#
$ ./configure --symbol-table=<symbol-table-file-name-your-favor> --has-<A>
$ make clean test

Feature Testing

Write a bash script named configure and put it into --src-dir directory.

Compiler Feature Testing

# check features
#----------------------------------------
nm_feature="endian"
nm_feature_name="nm_have_little_endian"
nm_feature_run=value
nm_feature_h="#include <stdio.h>"
nm_feature_flags=
nm_feature_inc=
nm_feature_ldlibs=
nm_feature_test='int i=0x11223344;
                 char *p = (char *)&i;
             	  int le = (0x44 == *p);
                 printf("%d", le);'
. ${NORE_ROOT}/auto/feature

Compiler Switch Testing

# check features based on Compiler
#----------------------------------------
case $CC_NAME in
	clang)
		;;
	gcc)
		nm_feature="$CC_NAME -Wl,-E|--export-dynamic"
		nm_feature_name=
		nm_feature_run=no
		nm_feature_h=
		nm_feature_flags=-Wl,-E
		nm_feature_inc=
		nm_feature_ldlibs=
		nm_feature_test=
		. ${NORE_ROOT}/auto/feature

		if [ yes = $nm_found ]; then
			flag=LDFLAGS op="+=" value=$nm_feature_flags . ${NORE_ROOT}/auto/make_define
		fi
		;;
	msvc)
		;;
esac

OS Feature Testing

# check features based on OS
#----------------------------------------
case $NM_SYSTEM in
	Darwin)
		nm_feature="libuv"
		nm_feature_name="nm_have_uv_h"
		nm_feature_run=no
		nm_feature_h="#include <uv.h>"
		nm_feature_flags=-L/opt/local/lib
		nm_feature_inc=-I/opt/local/include
		nm_feature_ldlibs=-luv
		nm_feature_test=
		. ${NORE_ROOT}/auto/feature
	  ;;
	Linux)
	  ;;
	WinNT)
	  ;;
	*)
	  ;;
esac

Tips

Nore's Commands

where: Nore will generate some auxiliary files, you can find those files via where command.

$ ./configure where

upgrade: Upgrade current Nore.

# in your C application directory
#
$ ./configure upgrade

Troubleshotting

Troubleshotting is more easier than other ones, because all just Makefile and shell scripts. And Nore provides a command for debugging purpose.

# debug command for debugging Nore's shell script
#
$ ./configure debug

# make debugging options: --just-print --print-data-base --warn-undefined-variables
#
$ make --just-print

Code Editor

Vim

On any platform, don't warry about C include path.

Emacs

On any Unix-like platform.

But on Window,

shell-command: %userprofile%/.cc-env.bat && bash e:/app/c/configure --has-x

compile: %userprofile%/.cc-env.bat && make -C e:/apps/c/ clean test

Visual Stduio Code

Debugger

lldb
gdb
cdb or wdg

Failed to load latest commit information.
auto	configure --new option: generating example C source	May 5, 2018
.gitignore
.travis-tests.sh	travis: make	Sep 24, 2017
.travis.yml	travis: TRAVIS_BUILD_DIR	Sep 24, 2017
LICENSE
README.md
bootstrap.sh

junjiemars/nore

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