Jam - make(1) redux
/+\
+\ Copyright 1993-2002 Christopher Seiwald and Perforce Software, Inc.
\+/
This is Release 2.5 of Jam, a make-like program.
License is hereby granted to use this software and distribute it
freely, as long as this copyright notice is retained and modifications
are clearly marked.
ALL WARRANTIES ARE HEREBY DISCLAIMED.
FEATURES
-> Jam is a make(1) replacement that makes building simple things
simple and building complicated things manageable.
-> Jam's language is expressive, making Jamfiles (c.f. Makefiles)
compact. Here's a sample:
Main smail : main.c map.c resolve.c deliver.c
misc.c parser.y alias.c pw.c headers.c
scanner.l getpath.c str.c ;
This builds "smail" from a dozen source files. Jam handles
header file dependencies automatically and on-the-fly.
-> Jam is very portable: it runs on UNIX, VMS, Mac, and NT.
Most Jamfiles themselves are portable, like the sample above.
-> Jam is unintrusive: it is small, it has negligible CPU
overhead, and it doesn't create any of its own funny files
(c.f. Odin, nmake, SunOS make).
-> Jam can build large projects spread across many directories
in one pass, without recursing, tracking the relationships
among all files. Jam can do this with multiple, concurrent
processes.
-> Jam isn't under the blinkin GNU copyright, so you can
incorporate it into commercial products.
INFORMATION GUIDE
Jam.html jam and language reference.
Jambase.html Reference for the Jambase boilerplate file.
Jamfile.html Easy reading on creating a Jamfile and using jam.
RELNOTES Release 2.3 release notes.
Porting Notes on porting jam to wildcat platforms.
README This file. Includes installation instructions.
jam.c Contains the jam command's main() as well as an
introduction to the code, for serious hackers.
INSTALLING
The Makefile (UNIX, NT), build.com (VMS), Build.mpw (Mac MPW) are
for bootstrapping. Once jam is built, it can rebuild itself.
UNIX
Build jam with make(1) on:
Platform $(OS)
-------------------------
AIX AIX *
BSD/386 1.0 BSDI
COHERENT/386 COHERENT
DGUX 5.4 DGUX
FreeBSD FREEBSD
HPUX 9.0 HPUX
IRIX 5.0 IRIX
Linux LINUX
NEXTSTEP 3.2 NEXT
OSF/1 OSF
PTX V2.1.0 PTX
Solaris 2 SOLARIS *
SunOS4.1 SUNOS
Ultrix 4.2 ULTRIX
BeOS BEOS *
* requires editing Makefile
Windows
Build jam with nmake on:
Platform $(OS)
-------------------------
NT NT *
OS/2 OS2 *
The NT MAXLINE (command line length) is still set in jam.h to
996, which was apparently the NT 3.5 limit. On 4.0, the limit
is somewhere around 10K. For now, you can increase MAXLINE in
jam.h so that a jam running on 4.0 will use the full command
line length, but that jam.exe will fail miserably on the older OS.
On NT, a variable must be set before invoking jam to tell
it where the C compiler lives. The name of this variable
depends on which compiler you are using:
BCCROOT: The Borland C compiler
MSVCDIR: The Microsoft Compiler 6.0 (for NT)
MSVCNT: The Microsoft Compiler 5.0 (for NT)
MSVC: The Microsoft Compiler 1.5 (for Windows)
Only MSVCNT and MSVCDIR have really been tested and are known
to work.
Macintosh
Build jam with Build.mpw on:
Platform $(OS)
-------------------------
Macintosh MAC
You'll need to edit Build.mpw to set CW.
VMS
Build jam with @build.com on:
Platform $(OS)
-------------------------
VMS 5.4 VMS
OPENVMS OPENVMS
Comments to the author!
November, 1993 - release 1.0
March, 1995 - release 2.0
February, 1996 - release 2.1
November, 1997 - release 2.2
December, 2000 - release 2.3
March, 2002 - release 2.4
December, 2002 - release 2.5
Christopher Seiwald
seiwald@perforce.com