When a program is being developed or maintained, the
programmer will typically change one file of several which
comprise the program. Cook examines the last-modified times of
the files to see when the prerequisites of a file have changed,
implying that the file needs to be recreated as it is logically
out of date.
Cook also provides a facility for implicit recipes, allowing
users to specify how to form a file with a given suffix from a
file with a different suffix. For example, to create
filename.o from filename.c
- Cook is a
replacement for the traditional make(1) tool.
| - There is a
make2cook utility included in the distribution to help
convert makefiles into cookbooks.
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- Cook is more powerful than the
traditional make tool.
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- Cook has true variables, not simple
macros.
| - Cook has a
simple but powerful string-based description language with many
built-in functions. This allows sophisticated filename
specification and manipulation without loss of readability or
performance.
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- Cook has user defined functions.
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- Cook can build in parallel.
| - Cook is able to build
your project with multiple parallel threads, with support for
rules which must be single threaded. It is possible to
distribute parallel builds over your LAN, allowing you to turn
your network into a virtual parallel build engine.
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- Cook can distribute builds across
your LAN.
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- Cook is able to use fingerprints to
supplement file modification times. This allows build
optimization without contorted rules.
| - Cook can be configured with an explicit list
of primary source files. This allow the dependency graph to be
constructed faster by not going down dead ends, and also allows
better error messages when the graph can't be constructed. This
requires an accurate source file manifest.
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- In addition to walking the dependency
graph, Cook can turn the input rules into a shell script, or a
web page.
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- Cook runs on almost any flavor of
UNIX. The source distribution is self configuring using a GNU
Autoconf generated configure script.
| - Cook has special cascade dependencies,
allowing powerful include dependency specification, amongst other
things.
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