API

The main API here is rather basic:

• make(name="default") – Process the target name by evaluating dependencies that need to be updated. "default" is the name of the default task. If name is a Vector of names, each name is processed sequentially.

• Maker.directory, Maker.file, Maker.phony, Maker.task, and Maker.variable – These methods all define tasks or targets to be updated. Each task has a name, zero or more dependencies, and an action as follows: julia Maker.task(action::Function, name::AbstractString, dependencies::Vector{AbstractString})

Normally with the file task, the action will perform an operation to create or update the file of the given name. With the variable task, the result of the action is assigned to a variable with the specified name. The task target is a generic task that can be used for general processing and to connect dependencies. All dependencies must be satisfied before running the action. phony is like task, but the timestamp always appears old, so it doesn't trigger upstream actions.

The action function can be called with zero or one arguments. If the one-argument version is available, that version is called. The argument is the AbstractTarget defined. Here is an example of this use:

Maker.file("in.csv", "out.csv") do t
    x = readcsv(t.dependencies[1])
    writecsv(t.name, 3 * x)
end

The following fields of an AbstractTarget are suitable for access: t.name, t.dependencies, t.description, and t.action.

directory, file, phony, task, and variable are all exported, but it is best to fully qualify these to help task definitions stand out.

Maker works well with Glob.jl for file and name wildcards. Here is an example of how globs can be used currently for traditional make-like file operations.

Although the API is geared towards use in scripts, you can use a standalone "makerfile.jl" to define tasks. See this makerfile.jl for an example. Run with `julia makerfile.jl cleancov`, `bin/maker cleancov`, or define an alias (using the bash shell in this example):

alias maker='julia makerfile.jl' 
maker cleancov

By convention, a "makerfile.jl" should end with make(ARGS) to run make on all arguments.