Multiplatform build with ZERO dependencies for C/C++

I will show here a simple alternative for build.

We can add much more features starting from this simple idea.

I will use two files main.c and file.c to show the idea:

main.c

#include "file.h"
int main() {  F(); }

file.h ```cpp

pragma once

void F(); file.ccpp

include

include "file.h"

void F() { printf("hello world\n"); } ```

Now lets create our build.c script:


#include <stdlib.h>
#include <stdio.h>

/*Compiler and platform detection*/

#ifdef _MSC_VER
#define COMPILER "cl "
#elif __GNUC__ != 0
#define COMPILER "gcc "
#else
#error compiler not defined
#endif

/*Files you want*/
#define FILES "hellobuild.c file.c"

/*output*/
#define OUT "hellobuild"

#define COMMAND_LINE  COMPILER  " " FILES " -o " OUT

int main()
{
  printf("%s\n", COMMAND_LINE);
  system(COMMAND_LINE); 
}

How to build on linux: gcc build.c -o build; ./build; rm build clang build.c -o build; ./build; rm build

How to build on windows - Open Developer command prompt

   clang build.c -o build.exe && build && del build.exe
   cl build.c -o build.exe && build && del build.exe

That's it!

Now we can add warnings, includes, libs for each platform and each compiler...

We can make the build script more static using macros or it also can be dynamic using the args and build strings before calling system.

It is up to you.

I will try this in a real project. Comment on twitter.

Extras

Visual C++ command line. Adding resources.

rc TesteWindowsApp.rc
cl /W4 TesteWindowsApp.cpp TesteWindowsApp.res  kernel32.lib 
   user32.lib gdi32.lib winspool.lib comdlg32.lib advapi32.lib
   shell32.lib ole32.lib oleaut32.lib uuid.lib odbc32.lib odbccp32.lib

The cl compiler call the linker automatically.