Skip to content

04-build-from-source.md

Latest commit

 

History

History
97 lines (70 loc) · 3.79 KB

04-build-from-source.md

File metadata and controls

97 lines (70 loc) · 3.79 KB

04 — Building from Source & Contributing

mcpp is self-hosting — mcpp builds mcpp from source using mcpp itself. Any environment that already has a working mcpp binary can build from source.

Prerequisites

Follow 00 — Getting Started to install a working copy of mcpp, then clone the repository:

git clone https://github.com/mcpp-community/mcpp
cd mcpp

Building and Testing

mcpp build              # compile the current source with the existing mcpp → ./target/.../bin/mcpp
mcpp run -- --version   # run the artifact you just built
mcpp test               # run tests/unit and tests/e2e

The first build automatically fetches the default toolchain; see 03 — Toolchain Management for details.

To produce a fully static binary identical to a release (the path taken by release.yml):

mcpp build --target x86_64-linux-musl
# → target/x86_64-linux-musl/.../bin/mcpp is a fully static ELF

Source Layout

src/
├── main.cpp              entry point
├── cli.cppm              command dispatch and argument parsing
├── manifest.cppm         mcpp.toml parsing
├── lockfile.cppm         mcpp.lock
├── version_req.cppm      SemVer constraints
├── fetcher.cppm          dependency download (git / index / path)
├── config.cppm           ~/.mcpp/config.toml
├── bmi_cache.cppm        cross-project BMI cache
├── dyndep.cppm           ninja dyndep generation
├── ui.cppm               progress bars and output formatting
├── build/                build orchestration and ninja backend
├── modgraph/             P1689 module scanning and dependency graph
├── toolchain/            toolchain detection, fingerprinting, and std module
├── pack/                 mcpp pack implementation
├── publish/              mcpp publish and xpkg generation
└── libs/                 third-party dependencies (toml parsing, etc.)

tests/
├── unit/                 gtest unit tests for each .cppm module
└── e2e/                  end-to-end shell scripts (run_all.sh is the CI entry point)

Test Organization

Tests are split into two layers:

  • Unit tests live in tests/unit/test_<module>.cpp, corresponding one-to-one with src/<module>.cppm per module.
  • e2e tests live in tests/e2e/NN_<feature>.sh and cover end-to-end behavior by exercising the real mcpp binary; run_all.sh is the CI entry point.

When changing any .cppm module under src/, check that the corresponding unit test covers your changes; for new features, prefer adding e2e cases.

Run a single e2e script:

cd tests/e2e
MCPP=$(realpath ../../target/x86_64-linux-musl/*/bin/mcpp) ./02_new_build_run.sh

Issue and PR Guidelines

Issues

File issues at github.com/mcpp-community/mcpp/issues, ideally including the following:

  • The full output of mcpp self env
  • The full output of the failing command (MCPP_LOG=debug gives more detail)
  • Your operating system, distribution, and glibc version (check with ldd --version)

Pull Requests

mcpp is in early iteration and its interfaces may change. Before submitting a PR, please note:

  1. For changes touching the CLI or the mcpp.toml schema, open an issue first to align on direction.
  2. Keep each PR focused on a single change; write commit titles in English imperative form (fix: ... / feat: ...).
  3. Confirm that mcpp test passes in full before submitting.

Community Resources