From: Stefan Lang <langstefan@...>
Date: 2005-04-18T06:13:23+09:00
Subject: [ANN] Rant 0.3.4

Rant is a flexible build tool written entirely in Ruby,
similar to Rake.

== What's new in this release?

* Installation with install.rb installs .cmd files on Windows.
* Sharing variables between Rantfiles
* Convenient file selection
* Rules
* Bugfixes

== More about Rant

The equivalent to a Makefile for make is the Rantfile. An
Rantfile is actually a valid Ruby script that is read by the
rant command.

Rant currently features:
* Defining custom tasks
* Automated packaging, testing and RDoc generation for Ruby
� applications and libraries.
* Primitive support for compiling C# sources portably with csc, cscc
� and mcs.
* Multiple buildfiles (e.g. one per directory).
* A configure plugin for easy environment and build-parameter
� checking (but not like autoconf!) which saves data in a yaml file.
* The rant-import command creates a monolithic rant script,
� so you don't depend on an rant installation anymore.

As programmers usually want to see code, here is a short Rantfile:

    # var/ENV mapping
    var.env %w(CC CFLAGS)
    # variable CC defaults to "cc"
    var :CC => "cc"
    # ignore CVS directories and files ending in ~
    var[:ignore] = ["CVS", /~$/]
    
    gen Rule, :o => :c do |t|
        sys "#{var :CC} #{var :CFLAGS} -c -o #{t.name} #{t.source}"
    end

    desc "Remove compiler products."
    task :clean do
        sys.rm_f sys["*.o", "*.a"]
    end

Running rant in the directory of this file:

    $ rant --tasks
    rant clean    # Remove compiler products.
    $ rant a.o
    cc  -c -o a.o a.c
    $ rant clean
    rm -f a.o
    $ rant a.o CC=gcc
    gcc  -c -o a.o a.c

== Installing Rant

You can install Rant as a RubyGem:
� � % gem install --remote rant

or download the package from RubyForge(http://rubyforge.org/frs/?group_id=615)
and install with install.rb:
    % ruby install.rb

== Resources

Current docs:: http://make.rubyforge.org
Rubyforge page:: http://rubyforge.org/projects/make/