Model module and task dependencies to build a lightweight, dependency-aware mini build tool. By blog.sake.ba.
The article begins by clarifying that build tools manage a task dependencies graph (unlike task runners like npm), enabling automatic execution of dependent tasks (e.g., compiling common modules before backend compilation). It introduces the concept of modules forming dependency graphs where transitive compilation is handled automatically, and compares task dependency representations: declarative languages (XML/YAML in Maven/Make/Ant) offer limited flexibility but force custom DSLs for complex scenarios, while DSLs (Groovy/Kotlin/Scala in Gradle/sbt/mill) increase complexity via language learning curves. A middle ground using configuration languages like Pkl is proposed for flexible multi-module builds without DSL overhead.
This is a foundational guide to building a dependency-aware mini build tool, offering clear conceptual separation between build tools and task runners, practical implementation details using JGraphT for graph management, and insights into extending the tool with caching, parallelism, and IDE integration. It serves as an educational resource for developers aiming to understand core build tool mechanics rather than incremental progress in the field. Good read!
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