We do something similar except our master build file explicitly calls the sub build files in the correct order. There is some elegance to the idea of adding a subproject without having to modify an existing build file. That doesn't work for us, and it doesn't work in general when you have cross-subproject dependencies.
Our directory layout is not quite as hierachical as the example (there is only one level of directories for subprojects). From the top level source directory, there are several subdirectories--one for each assembly. At first we were using the foreach technique shown in your example except that the subdirectories actually need to be processed in non-alphabetic order. Say we have subprojects A, B, and C. Because A and C both reference the class library being built in B, we have to build B first and then A and C. The only way we've come up with to do that is for the master build file to directly <nant> into B, then A and C. What would be nice is if there was some way of this being automatically determined. It is theoretically possible for some algorithm to notice the fact that the <csc> task in A's project has a <references> to the file created as output in the <csc> task of B. Anyway, it's not a huge issue for us right now. For now we have half a dozen assemblies with simple dependencies. However, we're just one small development team in the company. Currently the company has 100+ COM DLLs. If someday we migrate our applications to .NET and look at NAnt, the dependencies of those 100+ assemblies (assuming we don't combine a lot more than we do now) will be a bit difficult to manage by hand. Even if we can't find an elegant solution where NAnt figures it out itself, I have though about writing an app that traverses all of our slave build files and building a dependency map that could be used to generate a correct build order for a master build file to read from a file. Anyway, enough of my pipe dreams... -----Original Message----- From: Giuseppe Greco [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Friday, June 27, 2003 5:54 PM To: Jaroslaw Kowalski; NAnt Developers Cc: NAnt Users Jaroslaw, First of all, thank you for your feedback! I've really appreciated it. On Fri, 2003-06-27 at 23:55, Jaroslaw Kowalski wrote: > I think it's a good idea to promote good build system design and I think > that your document is a step in the right direction. > > I like the idea of being able to treat all subprojects in a generic way. You > use gateway build files for that purpose, but I think that this kind of > functionality should be directly supported with NAnt, so you don't need to > resort to this kind of hack. > > I think, one should be able to invoke <nant> like this (or with some other > syntax): > > <nant target="${target}"> > <buildfiles> > <includes ... /> > </buildfiles> > </nant> > This would be nice... but it is not implemented yet. The main advantage of gateway build files, is that you can add new subprojects without having to modify any build file. > This can be even used with recently added "named filesets" feature. You > would define a (single) fileset that would keep all your *.build files and > invoke various targets on it using simple one-liner without the need of a > gateway file trick. > > I don't remember the exact syntax for named filesets, but the concept is: > > <fileset id="childrenBuildFiles"> > <includes file="**/*.build" /> > </fileset> > > <target name="build"> > <nant target="build" fileset="childrenBuildFiles" /> > </target> > Yes, the syntax is correct. I'll introduce an example ASAP -- fileset references are available since last Tuesday... > This would make your *.build files MUCH more readable, and simplicity and > readability is (imho) the most iportant part of a build system. > > What do you think? I think we could discuss all together how to continue the development of this document; as soon as I'll publish the DocBook source files, anybody will be able to enhance it... Gius_. > > Jarek > ----- Original Message ----- > From: "Giuseppe Greco" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > To: "NAnt Developers" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>; "NAnt Users" > <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > Sent: Friday, June 27, 2003 10:29 PM > Subject: [nant-dev] Building Projects With NAnt > > > > Hi all, > > > > Since I've decided to adopt NAnt as the standard build > > tool here at ::agamura::, I've written a document titled > > "Building Projects With NAnt"... > > > > It is available at http://developer.agamura.com/technotes > > either in PDF or HTML format -- DocBook source files will > > be available soon. > > > > May be it could be helpful for those who are new to NAnt... > > It covers NAnt basics and introduces how projects should > > be structured. > > > > Any comment, suggestion, or critic is welcome! > > > > Gius_. > > > > -- > > ---------------------------------------- > > Giuseppe Greco > > > > ::agamura:: > > > > phone: +41 (0)91 604 67 65 > > mobile: +41 (0)76 390 60 32 > > email: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > > web: www.agamura.com > > ---------------------------------------- > > > > > > > > ------------------------------------------------------- > > This SF.Net email sponsored by: Free pre-built ASP.NET sites including > > Data Reports, E-commerce, Portals, and Forums are available now. > > Download today and enter to win an XBOX or Visual Studio .NET. > > http://aspnet.click-url.com/go/psa00100006ave/direct;at.asp_061203_01/01 > > _______________________________________________ > > nant-developers mailing list > > [EMAIL PROTECTED] > > https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/nant-developers > > > > > > ------------------------------------------------------- > This SF.Net email sponsored by: Free pre-built ASP.NET sites including > Data Reports, E-commerce, Portals, and Forums are available now. > Download today and enter to win an XBOX or Visual Studio .NET. > http://aspnet.click-url.com/go/psa00100006ave/direct;at.asp_061203_01/01 > _______________________________________________ > Nant-users mailing list > [EMAIL PROTECTED] > https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/nant-users -- ---------------------------------------- Giuseppe Greco ::agamura:: phone: +41 (0)91 604 67 65 mobile: +41 (0)76 390 60 32 email: [EMAIL PROTECTED] web: www.agamura.com ---------------------------------------- ------------------------------------------------------- This SF.Net email sponsored by: Free pre-built ASP.NET sites including Data Reports, E-commerce, Portals, and Forums are available now. 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