Make

In the previous chapter we took a look at the final command used to build a debian liveboot iso:

sudo raptor run                    \
  --link book   book/example       \
  --link rbuild ../raptor-builders \
  --cache liveboot-cache           \
  --input '$book.ssh'              \
  --output custom-liveboot.iso     \
  '$rbuild.deblive'

As mentioned, this works, but it doesn’t exactly roll off the tongue.

Having to type this command every time we want to build the iso, is not a satisfying solution.

To solve this, the subcommand raptor make is used. It is a make-like system, where dependencies are specified in a configuration file.

For make, this is a Makefile, for Rust it’s Cargo.toml, and for raptor make we have Raptor.toml.

Building a Raptor.toml for your project is recommend, but not required. It is perfectly possible to start using raptor from the command line, and only write a Raptor.toml file when it feels right.

That being said, the format for Raptor.toml has been designed to be a smooth transition from a constructed command line. The smallest valid Raptor.toml file is an empty one.

Let’s start by adding the two linked packages (--link arguments):

[raptor.link]
book = "book/example"
rbuild = "../raptor-builders"

We have added two package links, but of course any number can be added as desired.

All sections named [raptor.*] are settings for Raptor. The section [raptor.link] is for specifying linked packages.

Next, we will define a run job, which accounts for almost all of the remaining command line arguments.

A Raptor.toml file can have any number of [run.*] sections, each with their own name. Each of those sections is a separate run job. Let’s use book-ssh for this example:

[raptor.link]
book = "book/example"
rbuild = "../raptor-builders"

# The name `book-ssh` is not special.
# Feel free to choose any name you like!
[run.book-ssh]
target = "$rbuild.deblive"
cache = "liveboot-cache"
input = "$book.ssh"
output = "custom-liveboot.iso"

[raptor.link]
book = "book/example"
...

[run.example-1]
# $book refers to the link name above
input = "$book.ssh"
...

[raptor.link]
example = "book/example"
...

[run.example-2]
# $example refers to the link name above
input = "$example.ssh"
...

Now that we have encoded all the arguments, we can use a much simpler raptor make command to run this build job:

sudo raptor make book-ssh