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build-systemtup

Why does tup need one Tupfile per directory?

I've read a lot about the tup build system.

In many places, it is said that tup "does not support recursive rules" and that you need to have one Tupfile per directory. Yet I have not seen an official statement or explanation.

Is the above claim correct?

If yes, why, and for which kind of task is this problematic? An example would be nice.

Solution

  • It is worth noting that currently a Tupfile can create files in a different directory. You could always read files from different directory, so currently you can have a single Tupfile for the whole project.

    Some more info here: https://groups.google.com/d/msg/tup-users/h7B1YzdgCag/qsOpBs4DIQ8J (a little outdated) + https://groups.google.com/d/msg/tup-users/-w932WkPBkw/7ckmHJ9WUCEJ (new syntax to use the group as input)

    If you use the new LUA parser you can also have a "default" Tupfile - see here http://gittup.org/tup/lua_parser.html and check info about Tupdefault.lua