ODESSA code builder

local=`pwd`
tar zxvf builder-linux.tar.gz
alias builder=$local/odessa/proc/builder

%builder% [-h] [-v] [-d project-directory] [-f configuration-file] [platform-name]

builder [-h] [-v] [-d project-directory] [-f configuration-file] [platform-name]

The main idea consists in simplifying the task of a developer when compiling and linking his program. The usual tool for that is make, possibly associated to automake and autoconf, but its use is not obvious as far as FORTRAN is concerned. Indeed, the module files are not easy to manage and tools like sfmakedepend are often applied to generate dependencies.

But make has other drawbacks :

• many versions of make exist which are not compatible together, except for the simplest use. Moreover, if constructing a set of makefiles working on a unique platform is relatively easy, managing several development platforms with various operating systems is much more complicated.
• tests on files are applied on the time stamp only. This is a problem with FORTRAN modules, when a change of the source file does not really modify the generated module. The module time stamp is updated (except with few compilers) which often implies a cascade of useless compilations. When a compiler does not change the module time stamp, then the make program is itself in trouble if this module file has been defined as a target depending of the source file.

So the new proposed tool has the following objectives :

• Using together the file date and a file signature to determine whether or not a file has been modified since the last build. This function needs to save the current build state in a specific file, in the build directory.
• Recompiling a source file also when compiling options have been modified.
• Making possible to build the software several times with several compilers or operating systems, within a particular build directory for each case, all parameters being managed in a single configuration file which replaces the usual makefile(s). This function is very important because most of FORTRAN developers use several compiler suites.
• Managing correctly FORTRAN modules as well as include files.
• Introducing global tasks which make useless to check cross file dependencies when these files belong to or are generated by other tasks : a task is associated to its own set of files and then its own internal dependency list. The developer supplies the cross file dependency check in defining himself the dependencies between the tasks.
• Handling file suffixes and file names in an operating system independent way, even if if will remain possible to test the current operating system and to select specific actions for it.
• Platform options like file suffixes, compiler flags, OS names... are managed by small configuration blocks within the single configuration file.
• All source files are referenced relatively to the root directory of the software. On the contrary, produced files are referenced relatively to the building directory.
• Parallel compilation of source files, which are not related together, is managed automatically. This parallel processing occurs only within a task, the tasks being executed sequentially. This choice will be explained too.

Case of a software which file sources are located in a sub-directory. The best place for the configuration file is the root directory of the software. The default name is builder.cfg.

STRUCTURE TASK
  NAME    mycode                ! task name
  PROGRAM mycode                ! main target : the executable program
  DIR     src                   ! the directory containing sources
  SUFFIX  '.f'                  ! the suffixes of the files to compile
  SUFFIX  '.c'
  SUFFIX  '.f90'
END

STRUCTURE PLATFORM              ! description of a first platform
  NAME "unix-intel"             ! platform name
  BUILD "bin/unix-intel"        ! building directory
  OBJ '.o' MOD '.mod'           ! main suffixes of various files
  LIB '.a' EXE ''
  STRUCTURE COMPILER            ! compiler description
    SUFFIX '.f90' SUFFIX '.f'   ! source file suffixes
    COMMAND "ifort"             ! command
    FLAGS   "-O3 -openmp"       ! compilation flags
    NOLINK  "-c"                ! the special flag peventing the link phase
    OUT     "-o"                ! the flag to precise the name of the main output file
    INC     "-I"                ! the flag to precise directories for includes and modules
    MOD     "-module"           ! the flag to precise the directory receiving modules
  END
  STRUCTURE COMPILER            ! compiler for C files
    SUFFIX '.c'   SUFFIX '.cc'  ! source file suffixes
    COMMAND "icc"               ! command
    FLAGS   "-O3"               ! compilation flags
    NOLINK  "-c"                ! the special flag preventing the link phase
    OUT     "-o"                ! the flag to precise the name of the main output file
  END
  STRUCTURE PROGRAM             ! the linker
    COMMAND "ifort"             ! command to use.
    OUT     "-o"                ! the flag to precise the program file
    FLAGS   "-openmp"           ! optimizations flags
    TAIL    "-lX11 -lphread"    ! command tail
  END
END

cd my_root_directory
builder

cd my_root_directory
%builder%

builder -d /.../my_root_directory

%builder% -d \...\my_root_directory