README.md

LibraryMake

An attempt to simplify building native code for a Raku module. It should work on all platforms, as long as specified tools are available locally.

This is effectively a small configure script for a Makefile. It will allow you to use the same tools to build your native code that were used to build Raku itself.

Typically, this will be used in both Build.rakumod (to support installation using a module manager), and in a standalone Configure.raku script in the src directory (to support standalone testing/building). Note that if you need additional custom configure code, you will currently need to add it to both your Build.rakumod and to your Configure.raku.

Example Usage

The below files are examples of what you would write in your own project. The src directory is merely a convention, and the Makefile.in will likely be significantly different in your own project.

/Build.rakumod

    use LibraryMake;
    use Shell::Command;

    my $libname = 'chelper';

    class Build {
        method build($dir) {
            my %vars = get-vars($dir);
            %vars{$libname} = $*VM.platform-library-name($libname.IO);
            mkdir "$dir/resources" unless "$dir/resources".IO.e;
            mkdir "$dir/resources/libraries" unless "$dir/resources/libraries".IO.e;
            process-makefile($dir, %vars);
            my $goback = $*CWD;
            chdir($dir);
            shell(%vars<MAKE>);
            chdir($goback);
        }
    }

src/Configure.raku

    #!/usr/bin/env raku
    use LibraryMake;

    my $libname = 'chelper';
    my %vars = get-vars('.');
    %vars{$libname} = $*VM.platform-library-name($libname.IO);
    mkdir "resources" unless "resources".IO.e;
    mkdir "resources/libraries" unless "resources/libraries".IO.e;
    process-makefile('.', %vars);
    shell(%vars<MAKE>);

    say "Configure completed! You can now run '%vars<MAKE>' to build lib$libname.";

src/Makefile.in (Make sure you use TABs and not spaces!)

    .PHONY: clean test

    all: %DESTDIR%/resources/libraries/%chelper%

    clean:
        -rm %DESTDIR%/resources/libraries/%chelper% %DESTDIR%/*.o

    %DESTDIR%/resources/libraries/%chelper%: chelper%O%
        %LD% %LDSHARED% %LDFLAGS% %LIBS% %LDOUT%%DESTDIR%/resources/libraries/%chelper% chelper%O%

    chelper%O%: src/chelper.c
        %CC% -c %CCSHARED% %CCFLAGS% %CCOUT% chelper%O% src/chelper.c

    test: all
        prove -e "raku -Ilib" t

/lib/My/Module.rakumod

    # ...

    use NativeCall;
    use LibraryMake;

    constant CHELPER = %?RESOURCES<libraries/chelper>.absolute;

    sub foo() is native( CHELPER ) { * };

Include the following section in your META6.json:

    "resources" : [
        "library/chelper"
    ],
    "depends" : [
        "LibraryMake"
    ]

Functions

sub get-vars

sub get-vars(
    Str $destfolder
) returns Hash

Returns configuration variables. Effectively just a wrapper around $*VM.config, as the VM config variables are different for each backend VM.

sub process-makefile

sub process-makefile(
    Str $folder, 
    %vars
) returns Mu

Takes '$folder/Makefile.in' and writes out '$folder/Makefile'. %vars should be the result of get-vars above.

sub make

sub make(
    Str $folder, 
    Str $destfolder
) returns Mu

Calls get-vars and process-makefile for you to generate '$folder/Makefile', then runs your system's 'make' to build it.

sub build-tools-installed()

sub build-tools-installed(
) returns Bool

Returns True if the configured compiler(CC), linker(LD) and make program(MAKE) have been installed on this sytem system.

Change log

• 1.0.4 Reinstates macOS test and eliminates test that fails in it.
• 1.0.3 Fixes files included in zef.
• 1.0.2 Fixes test error when prove6 is installed as test runner and picked up by zef.
• 1.0.1 Checks that the directory it's writing is writable, errors if it does not
• 1.0.0 Original version, newly released to the zef ecosystem.