build tools

[tpimh]

this is a general topic for listing and discussing build tool alternatives for different build systems, dev tools and libraries to be used as (mostly) drop-in replacements

here is a short list that I compiled in no particular order:

• gmake -> kati (c++, not able to build the kernel)
• ninja -> samurai
• meson -> boson
• bison -> yacc
• m4 -> netbsd m4

[lm8]

Hope it's okay to add to this topic:
m4 -> http://haddonthethird.net/m4/
Gnu autoconf -> CDetect http://cdetect.sourceforge.net/ (I have an updated version of this with more features including some cross-compiling support) Not exactly a drop in replacement but has a lot of the same functionality.
pkgconfig -> pkgconf
libtool -> slibtool https://github.com/midipix-project/slibtool
I've been looking for a good alternative to gmake as well. bsd make and plan 9 mk aren't compatible enough to be used as a drop in replacement in many situations. There were a few other projects that were going to attempt to create a drop in replacement. One wasn't very active. Another was written in Pascal. Think it was at Sourceforge.

[tpimh]

There were two major projects that tried to be compatible with gmake syntax: makepp (Perl) and pymake (Python). For both of them the compatibility is not 100%, neither is able to build the kernel. Kati is much better though.

I was thinking to include cmake/meson configuration for every project that doesn't use it already. Unfortunately, it seems like it would just consume too much time, but would be a good solution indeed.

[lm8]

I'm taking the time to replace a lot of the autconf/configure files with CDetect. Haven't found a replacement I like for make yet, so I haven't converted anything off that. When I convert, I use a tool to autogenerate part of the make file, so it may not be that bad to switch to BSD make or some other make by modifying what's generated. It does take a while to convert build scripts over for projects though. makepp was the project I saw at Sourceforge. Claimed compatibility with GNU make. Sorry to hear it wasn't 100%. Was looking for something that wouldn't need a Perl dependency anyway. Probably won't help but I believe Heirloom Tools includes make: http://heirloom.sourceforge.net/devtools.html I'm guessing it's similar to the BSD make.

[tpimh]

I believe makepp would do fine for most of the projects, but Kati is still superior in feature support (neither can build Linux kernel).