rad 💯

a general purpose build tool.

statically typed, programmable, transparent, batteries included. shell, function based, and make-style task support.

usage

$ rad <task-name> [--help]

// rad.ts - your buildfile
import { Tasks } from "https://raw.githubusercontent.com/cdaringe/rad/master/src/mod.ts";

// command tasks
const format = `prettier --write`
const test = `deno test`

// function tasks
const compile = {
  dependsOn: [format],
  fn({ sh, ...toolkit }) => sh('tsc')
}

// make-style tasks
const transpile = {
  target: "phony",
  prereqs: ["p1", "p2"],
  async onMake({ logger }, { prereqs, getChangedPrereqFilenames }) {
    const babel = await import("https://my.cdn/babel/7.js")
    for await (const req of prereqs) {
      logger.info(`req: ${req.filename} ${JSON.stringify(req.info)}`);
    }
    const changed = await getChangedPrereqFilenames();
    logger.info(`changed: ${changed} (${changed.length})`);
  },
}

export const tasks: Tasks = {
  compile,
  format,
  test
}

install

there are a few formal ways to use rad:

¹For docker users, consider making a nice shell alias

# shell profile, e.g. .bash_profile
function rad() {
  docker run --rm -v $PWD:/rad cdaringe/rad "$@";
}

what is it

• bottom-up, make-style build targets
  • fast builds, skip redundant tasks when inputs haven’t changed!
• pipeline style builds
  • easy to understand, declarative build steps
• highly portable. build automation for any language or project, in many environments
• generic package management
• great UX is priority 1 (after priorities 0.33 works, 0.66 correct, & 0.99 fast-enough :))

why

no build tools in 2018 2019 2020 have a complete feature set that the average polyglot programmer needs without coercing it or piling on extraneous complexity.

see why not just use

features

• stop using make and bash. use a modern syntax and a real scripting language
  • <ref to why bash is not fit for general purpose scripting>
• no DSL. your build is code–tasks are POJOs with a verified interface
• debuggable. 🐛 halt the runtime, inspect your data, tasks, or even rad itself
• beautiful.
• take it anywhere.
  • osx, linux, windows!
    • help us support other architectures
• no dependencies.
  • e.g. you don’t need bash, or java, this lib, that lib, etc. we bundle everything we need, courtesy of deno bundle!