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December 24, 2003

NAnt, Why?

After using NAnt for sometime, it fairly well designed build tool, especially since it's inspiration came from Ant.

I have used Apache Ant extensively and cannot think a better build tool for build/develop of Java projects. So when I saw NAnt, I thought that this should be a great tool for building .NET projects. And it is, but my problem is that since most .NET developement is IDE based (please correct me if I am wrong, especially using VS.NET, see NOTE), you already are provided with a 'build' file of sorts as the csproj, etc. NAnt does come with SLiNgshoT.exe, a tool that converts solution files to NAnt build files and/or NMake files. I truly believe that NAnt's real value comes being able to exceute the associated unit tests with a build and build related documentation. Now Nant is good up until the point that you are using VS solution files. Essentially my build script consists of 60+ solution files. It looks like this:


<target name="build" description="compiles the source code"<
<echo message="Base Build Directory = ${nant.project.basedir}"/>
<echo message="Logging Directory = ${log.dir}"/>
<tstamp property="build.date" pattern="yyyyMMdd" verbose="true"/>
<!--
Full Ordered Build, Take From Build Log.
This Should Be Built Dynamically.
-->
<solution configuration="${build.type}" solutionfile="${src.dir}\Flood\NET.Flood.FloodLib\NET.Flood.FloodLib.sln"/>
<solution configuration="${build.type}" solutionfile="${src.dir}\3rdParty\log4net\src\log4net.sln"/>
<solution configuration="${build.type}" solutionfile="${src.dir}\NET.Data\NET.Data.sln"/>
<solution configuration="${build.type}" solutionfile="${src.dir}\NET.Inquiry\NET.Inquiry.sln"/>
<!-- 70 more solution file entries down here... -->
</target>

As you see above, my NAnt build file is extremely straightforward. I have accomplished the same running a batch script that executes devenv.exe with the appropriate solution file. Also notice that I have orded the solution files in order of dependency.

What I need here is a tool to recursively search my project main source tree, scan all solution files and based on dependency create the FULL build script.

Build Tool Requirements:

  • List Builder. Recursive directory search for *.csproj or *.sln files to create the List OR pass the List of files to build.
  • Derive the Master Build List (MBL). Basically take a List of projects to be built and create the Master Build List based solely on non-System dependencies.
  • Build from the Master Build List. Emit all the binaries from the MBL using Override options.
  • Overridable Options. Allow the user to Override Project Output Directory, Override Debug Settings.
  • Log Output. Log all build output consistently using logging framework.
  • Optional: Multi-Threaded compilation. Compile projects without dependencies upon each other inside their own Thread.

    Note About IDEs: For any of my shared open source projects I have been using the Sharpdevelop IDE. Prevoius incantations have been shaky and a little slow, but the latest version runs very well and is much faster (and it's free).

    To Be Continued.

    • Posted by 0xFF3300 at December 24, 2003 09:11 AM

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