Exploiting Persistence in Build Management

A challenging issue in the construction and maintenance of large application systems is how to determine which components need to be rebuilt after change, when and in which order. Rebuilding is typically recompilation and linking, but may also include update of derivable components such as cross-reference databases and re-creation of library indexes. Type definitions or schema, and data values in a file store, database or persistent store may also need to be rebuilt. The main purpose of this paper is to describe how persistent language technology can be exploited to enhance build management. In particular, the paper describes a method for transactional, incremental linking and the implementation of its support. To help implement this method, and to make it safer and more efficient to carry out rebuild activities in general, we have defined a set of automatically checkable constraints on the software. The build management tool we have implemented, the Builder, derives rebuild dependencies automatically and offers partitioning of dependency graphs—a means to defer or avoid unnecessary rebuilding. The Builder is implemented in a persistent programming language and provides build management for applications written in the language. It exploits features such as strong typing, runtime linguistic reflection, and referential integrity provided by the language processing technology. The Builder operates over both programs and (complex) data, which is in contrast to conventional language-centred tools. © 1997 by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.