software development Software development is the process of conceiving, specifying, designing, programming, documenting, testing, and bug fixing involved in creating and maintaining applications, frameworks, or other software components. Software development inv ...

, a build is the process of converting

source code In computing, source code, or simply code, is any collection of code, with or without comment (computer programming), comments, written using a human-readable programming language, usually as plain text. The source code of a Computer program, p ...

files into standalone software artifact(s) that can be run on a computer, or the result of doing so.

Functions

Building software is an end-to-end process that involves many distinct functions. Some of these functions are described below.

Version control

The

version control In software engineering, version control (also known as revision control, source control, or source code management) is a class of systems responsible for managing changes to computer programs, documents, large web sites, or other collections o ...

function carries out activities such as workspace creation and updating, baselining and reporting. It creates an environment for the build process to run in and captures metadata about the inputs and output of the build process to ensure repeatability and reliability. Tools such as Git,

AccuRev AccuRev is a software configuration management application developed by AccuRev, Inc. and was first released in 1999. In December 2013 AccuRev was acquired by Micro Focus. Overview AccuRev is a centralized version control system which uses a ...

or StarTeam help with these tasks by offering tools to tag specific points in history as being important, and more.

Code quality

Also known as static program analysis/static code analysis this function is responsible for checking that developers have adhered to the seven axes of code quality: comments, unit tests, duplication, complexity, coding rules, potential bugs and architecture & design. Ensuring a project has high-quality code results in fewer bugs and influences nonfunctional requirements such as maintainability, extensibility and readability; which have a direct impact on the ROI for a business.

Compilation

This is only a small feature of managing the build process. The compilation function turns source files into directly executable or intermediate objects. Not every project will require this function. While for simple programs the process consists of a single file being compiled, for complex software the source code may consist of many files and may be combined in different ways to produce many different versions.

Build tools

The process of building a

computer program A computer program is a sequence or set of instructions in a programming language for a computer to execute. Computer programs are one component of software, which also includes documentation and other intangible components. A computer progra ...

is usually managed by a build tool, a program that coordinates and controls other programs. Examples of such a program are make,

Gradle Gradle is a build automation tool for multi-language software development. It controls the development process in the tasks of compilation and packaging to testing, deployment, and publishing. Supported languages include Java (as well as Kotli ...

, Meister by OpenMake Software, Ant,

Maven MAVEN is an American spacecraft orbiting Mars to study the loss of its atmospheric gases to space, providing insight into the history of the planet's climate and water. The spacecraft name is an acronym for "Mars Atmosphere and Volatile Evolu ...

, Rake, SCons an
Phing
The build utility typically needs to compile the various files, in the correct order. If the source code in a particular file has not changed then it may not need to be recompiled ("may not" rather than "need not" because it may itself depend on other files that have changed). Sophisticated build utilities and linkers attempt to refrain from recompiling code that does not need it, to shorten the time required to complete the build. A more complex process may involve other programs producing code or data as part of the build process and software.

References