Building¶

This section describes how to build Spoofax from scratch, on the command-line.

Cloning the source code¶

Clone the source code from the spoofax-releng repository with the following commands:

macOS, Linux, Windows

git clone --recursive https://github.com/metaborg/spoofax-releng.git
cd spoofax-releng

Cloning and updating submodules can take a while, since we have many submodules and some have a large history.

Note

Windows

Additionally, only on Windows, you have to do the following:

cd releng\releng
py -m pip install -r .\requirements.txt

Note

macOS Catalina, Big Sur, or newer

You have to install coreutils and docker to be able to build Spoofax. This is temporarily, until the 32-bit binaries for sdf2table and implodePT have been phased out.

Download Docker Desktop for Mac.
Install coreutils through Homebrew: brew install coreutils

Start a build¶

To build Spoofax, simply execute:

macOS, Linux

./b build all

Windows

.\bd.bat build all

This downloads the latest Stratego/XT, and builds Spoofax. If you also want to build Stratego/XT from scratch, execute:

macOS, Linux

./b build -st all

Windows

.\bd.bat build -st all

The -s flag build Stratego/XT instead of downloading it, and -t skips the Stratego/XT tests since they are very lengthy. The all part of the command indicates that we want to build all components. If you would only like to build the Java components of Spoofax, and skip the Eclipse plugins, execute:

In Windows, type .\bd.bat instead of ./b in the following commands.

macOS, Linux

./b build java

Use ./b build to get a list of components available for building, and ./b build --help for help on all the command-line flags and switches.

Note

If you have opened a project in the repository in Eclipse, you must turn off Project ‣ Build Automatically in Eclipse, otherwise the Maven and Eclipse compilers will interfere and possibly fail the build. After the Maven build is finished, enable Build Automatically again.

Updating the source code¶

If you want to update the repository and submodules, execute:

macOS, Linux

git pull --rebase
./b checkout
./b update

The git pull command will update any changes in the main repository. The ./b checkout command will check out the correct branches in all submodules, because Git does not do this automatically. The ./b update command will update all submodules.

Switching to a different branch¶

Switching to a different branch, for example the spoofax-release branch, is done with the following commands:

macOS, Linux

git checkout spoofax-release
git pull --rebase
git submodule update --init --remote --recursive
./b checkout
./b update

Troubleshooting¶

Resetting and cleaning¶

If updating or checking out a branch of submodule fails (because of unstaged or conflicting changes), you can try to resolve it yourself, or you can reset and clean everything. Reset and clean all submodules using:

macOS, Linux

./b reset
./b clean

Warning

Resetting and cleaning DELETES UNCOMMITTED AND UNPUSHED CHANGES, which can cause PERMANENT DATA LOSS. Make sure all your changes are committed and pushed!

Weird compilation errors¶

If you get any weird compilation errors during the build, make sure that Project ‣ Build Automatically is turned off in Eclipse.