nob.h

Mon, 18 Aug 2025 15:32:44 +0800

tsoding/nob.h

nob.h - Next generation of the NoBuild

This library is the next generation of the NoBuild idea. “nob” stands for “nobuild”, but it’s shorter and more suitable as a prefix for a library.

For my previous iteration on this idea see https://github.com/tsoding/nobuild, but I do not recommend to use it.

NoBuild Idea

The idea is that you should not need anything but a C compiler to build a C project. No make, no cmake, no shell, no cmd, no PowerShell etc. Only C compiler. So with the C compiler you bootstrap your build system and then you use the build system to build everything else.

This is an Experimental Project

I’m not sure if this is even a good idea myself. This is why I’m implementing it. This is a research project. I’m not making any claims about suitability of this approach to any project.

Right now I’m actively using nob in a variety of my C projects at https://github.com/tsoding/. It works quite well for me there.

It’s likely Not Suitable for Your Project

If you are using cmake with tons of modules to manage and find tons of dependencies you probably don’t want to use this tool. (But in that case I personally think you have much bigger problem than a build system). NoBuild is more like writting shell scripts but in C.

Advantages of NoBuild

Extremely portable builds across variety of systems including (but not limited to) Linux, MacOS, Windows, FreeBSD, etc. This is achieved by reducing the amount of dependencies to just a C compiler, which exists pretty much for any platform these days.
You end up using the same language for developing and building your project. Which may enable some interesting code reusage strategies. The build system can use the code of the project itself directly and the project can use the code of the build system also directly.
You get to use C more.
…

Disadvantages of NoBuild

You need to be comfortable with C and implementing things yourself. As mentioned above this is like writing shell scripts but in C.
It probably does not make any sense outside of C/C++ projects.
You get to use C more.
…

Why is it called “nobuild” when it’s clearly a build tool?

You know all these BS movements that supposedly remove the root cause of your problems? Things like NoSQL, No-code, Serverless, etc. This is the same logic. I had too many problems with the process of building C projects. So there is nobuild anymore.

How to use the library in your own project

The only file you need from here is nob.h. Just copy-paste it to your project and start using it. See how_to/ folder for examples.

NoBuild in Other Languages

This is obviously applicable not only to C. You can implement the same kind of approach for other languages (apart from the languages that support this natively, of course). Here is few examples in the wild:

Feel free to contribute more

scylladb

Thu, 17 Apr 2025 15:30:57 +0800

scylladb/scylladb

Scylla

What is Scylla?

Scylla is the real-time big data database that is API-compatible with Apache Cassandra and Amazon DynamoDB. Scylla embraces a shared-nothing approach that increases throughput and storage capacity to realize order-of-magnitude performance improvements and reduce hardware costs.

For more information, please see the ScyllaDB web site.

Build Prerequisites

Scylla is fairly fussy about its build environment, requiring very recent versions of the C++23 compiler and of many libraries to build. The document HACKING.md includes detailed information on building and developing Scylla, but to get Scylla building quickly on (almost) any build machine, Scylla offers a frozen toolchain, This is a pre-configured Docker image which includes recent versions of all the required compilers, libraries and build tools. Using the frozen toolchain allows you to avoid changing anything in your build machine to meet Scylla’s requirements - you just need to meet the frozen toolchain’s prerequisites (mostly, Docker or Podman being available).

Building Scylla

Building Scylla with the frozen toolchain dbuild is as easy as:

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$ git submodule update --init --force --recursive
$ ./tools/toolchain/dbuild ./configure.py
$ ./tools/toolchain/dbuild ninja build/release/scylla

For further information, please see:

Developer documentation for more information on building Scylla.
Build documentation on how to build Scylla binaries, tests, and packages.
Docker image build documentation for information on how to build Docker images.

Running Scylla

To start Scylla server, run:

`1`	`$ ./tools/toolchain/dbuild ./build/release/scylla --workdir tmp --smp 1 --developer-mode 1`

This will start a Scylla node with one CPU core allocated to it and data files stored in the tmp directory. The --developer-mode is needed to disable the various checks Scylla performs at startup to ensure the machine is configured for maximum performance (not relevant on development workstations). Please note that you need to run Scylla with dbuild if you built it with the frozen toolchain.

For more run options, run:

`1`	`$ ./tools/toolchain/dbuild ./build/release/scylla --help`

Testing

See test.py manual.

Scylla APIs and compatibility

By default, Scylla is compatible with Apache Cassandra and its API - CQL. There is also support for the API of Amazon DynamoDB™, which needs to be enabled and configured in order to be used. For more information on how to enable the DynamoDB™ API in Scylla, and the current compatibility of this feature as well as Scylla-specific extensions, see Alternator and Getting started with Alternator.

Documentation

Documentation can be found here. Seastar documentation can be found here. User documentation can be found here.

Training

Training material and online courses can be found at Scylla University. The courses are free, self-paced and include hands-on examples. They cover a variety of topics including Scylla data modeling, administration, architecture, basic NoSQL concepts, using drivers for application development, Scylla setup, failover, compactions, multi-datacenters and how Scylla integrates with third-party applications.

Contributing to Scylla

If you want to report a bug or submit a pull request or a patch, please read the contribution guidelines.

If you are a developer working on Scylla, please read the developer guidelines.

Contact

The community forum and Slack channel are for users to discuss configuration, management, and operations of ScyllaDB.
The developers mailing list is for developers and people interested in following the development of ScyllaDB to discuss technical topics.

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