Nake

Nake project is tool for running project scripts in easy and shell-compatible way. It is not intended as replacement for Make when it comes to compiling (and it has no support for that kind of work).

Quick start:

pip install nake

vim Nakefile

Write there:

setup:
	python3 -m venv foo_venv
 	source foo_venv/bin/activate
 	pip install -r requirements.txt

That's it, complete Nakefile which can be run as nake setup 😃

Makefile would need to have &\ at end of lines, for the changes made by source to not be lost. Nakefile by default checks if command in line returned 0, before proceeding to next one. It can be changed to ignore errors by prefixing line with - (like in Makefile).

Indentation is up to you: you can use tab, 4 spaces, 1 space or no space at all. Nakefile is case sensitive. Line comments are supported through # line comment, and multi line comments through /* and */ (like in C++).

Aims of this project

• to replace make for cases when resolving file dependencies doesn't matter, but user want to have scripts for running various project tasks
• allow perfect integration with shell variables and other utilities
• compatibility with all popular shells and platforms
• simple to use, flexible, modern feeling to it
• better autocompletion support (instead of only first words, also middle words ie. setup-api-server could be invoked by typing nake api and all commands with api would appear)
• perhaps be make-compatible, in that Nakefile can store make compatible syntax in case you need the dependency resolving and other magic. Then running it like nake make stuff would run it as make stuff (using make from system, with dynamically created makefile). That way one file could store all building logic for using make, and in the same file have handy nake scripts (need to think more on this if it makes sense).
• other reasons why Make is troublesome tool: https://github.com/SCons/scons/wiki/FromMakeToScons

Problems with make

... from the point of view of person who wants to run shell scripts:

• every instruction is run in separate shell, which doesn't allow to set env variables in one line and use in next
• syntax used by variables is different from shell, often impossible to use the same command as in shell, adaptation is sometimes difficult and time consuming
• single targets can't have individual parameters
• need to repeat every command on top of file with .PHONY
• tab is required before every command, without it make won't work and error message will be cryptic
• by default doesn't use any shell extension (needs to be specifically instructed using SHELL := /bin/bash)
• focused on resolving dependencies in C/C++ and other compilled languages
• a lot of historic baggage, built originally in 70's and 80's which is visible

Design

Note: all below are louse design ramblings, and can change at any step.

Constants

FOOBAR_PORT='1337'
FOOBAR_ADDRESS='localhost:' + {FOOBAR_PORT}

api-add-some(baz: str):
  echo "Calling my amazing service"
  curl {FOOBAR_ADDRESS}/api/v1/baz/{baz} -X POST > results.txt 
_ cat results.txt | grep "top-secret"

Nakefile constants are using different syntax than shell variables, so it's harder to mix them and they're universal. Syntax is similiar to python. Constants are interpreted once before command is run. Nakefile targets (api-add-some) can have parameters with types, and are automatically checked at runtime. Forgetting to provide parameter shows friendly error:

$ nake api-add-some
Nake error: target 'api-add-some' called without param 'baz: str'

$ nake api-add-some "99_beers"
  Calling my amazing service
  curl localhost:1337/api/v1/baz/99_beers -X POST
  (here goes grep results)

Lines are echoed (except for echo command itself!). Echoing can be disabled by prefixing line with @ or _ and space. Combining _ and - gives = - line that is not echoed and return result is ignored (will see if that makes sense 😃 ) Prefixing with + echoes line, if it was disabled for target. Prefixing target with one of above modifiers applies this logic automatically to all lines.

Targets

Nakefiles can also be simply included for composition (#1). Targets can call each other in any place (#2):

include foobar.nake   # 1

api-add-even-more(baz: str, buzz: int):    # 2
  api-add-some(baz)
  curl {FOOBAR_ADDRESS}/api/v1/buzz/{buzz} -X POST

Nake tries to detect target calls inside targets, but if it fails because ie. some other symbol has the same name, it can be forced by prefixing with !

Nake doesn't support the dependencies syntax as in Make, ie.

make-rule: dep1 dep2
	echo "doing sth here after dependencies"

Default parameters:

build-api(tag: str = 'latest'):
	cd api/
	docker build -t api:{tag}

run-api(tag: str = 'latest'):
	echo "Running api:{tag}"
	docker run --rm -p 8080 api:{tag}

String parameters are "replaced" inplace without quotes, inside strings or commands. Nake doesn't try interpret the context. No special rules to remember.

As usual in languages with default params, you need to provide default value to all further params once one gets default param. And you can't

Default target and aliases

If nothing is passed - nake - a all target is run, if it's defined and has all default variables. Otherwise Nake just displays list of targets.

Note that you can provide aliases for commands by prepending them before:

all:
setup:
spam(what: str='):
	python3 -m spam {what}

So with above you can run nake, nake setup and nake spam 'eggs' and it will have the same effect.

Environment variables

They can be declared in targets using :

some-rule:
	VARIABLE='foobar'
	echo $(VARIABLE)

You can also include env files with definitions, ie. .env:

FOOBAR_VER=1.0.2
export base_image=alpine:12

Notice that it supports both export and base variable definitions. Now after include in top level they will be available to all targets:

include .env

Or you can include them in target:

some-rule:
	include .env
	echo $(FOOBAR_VER)

(Or maybe the include should create only nake constants, that are available like echo {FOOBAR_VER} ? This avoids mixing envs and nake machinery).

Note, in many cases a typical bash source will work the same, and it might support more cases.

Configuration

Inside nake target:

nake:
  shell = sh  # by default is bash

Should nake support nake.conf file store in ~/.nake for having user specific settings?

Alternatives:

• https://github.com/tj/robo - golang, modern, nice extensions

• https://github.com/ruby/rake - format of ruby

• frontend - https://medium.com/finn-no/makefiles-for-frontend-1779be46461b

• bash scripts 😃 just defining functions in .sh file. However you need additional layer of choosing which function should be run. Other method is to have functions in separate files, but it makes running them harder, code reuse is much harder, and maintaing lot of separate scripts is diffucult.