rad 💯

a general purpose build tool.

statically typed, batteries included. command tasks, function tasks, and make-style tasks supported.

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jump to:

  1. documentation site
  2. usage
  3. install
  4. what
  5. why not <my-favorite-build-tool>?
  6. manual

usage

$ rad <task-name> [--help]

// rad.ts
import { Tasks } from "https://deno.land/x/rad/src/mod.ts";

// command tasks
const format = `prettier --write`
const test = `deno test`

// function tasks
const compile = {
  dependsOn: [format],
  fn({ sh, ...toolkit }) => sh('tsc')
}

// make-style tasks
const transpile = {
  target: "phony",
  prereqs: ["p1", "p2"],
  async onMake({ logger }, { changedPrereqs /*, prereqs */}) {
    for await (const req of changedPrereqs) {
      logger.info(`req: <span class="katex"><span class="katex-mathml"><math xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML"><semantics><mrow><mi>r</mi><mi>e</mi><mi>q</mi><mi mathvariant="normal">.</mi><mi>f</mi><mi>i</mi><mi>l</mi><mi>e</mi><mi>n</mi><mi>a</mi><mi>m</mi><mi>e</mi></mrow><annotation encoding="application/x-tex">{req.filename} </annotation></semantics></math></span><span class="katex-html" aria-hidden="true"><span class="base"><span class="strut" style="height:0.8889em;vertical-align:-0.1944em;"></span><span class="mord"><span class="mord mathnormal">re</span><span class="mord mathnormal" style="margin-right:0.03588em;">q</span><span class="mord">.</span><span class="mord mathnormal" style="margin-right:0.10764em;">f</span><span class="mord mathnormal">i</span><span class="mord mathnormal" style="margin-right:0.01968em;">l</span><span class="mord mathnormal">e</span><span class="mord mathnormal">nam</span><span class="mord mathnormal">e</span></span></span></span></span>{JSON.stringify(req.info)}`);
    }
  },
}

export const tasks: Tasks = {
  compile,
  format,
  test
}

install

there are a few formal ways to use rad. regardless of the route you choose, know that all strategies support using pinned versions, adherent to semver. see the releases page.

usage install-method install-steps
cli deno deno install rad https://github.com/cdaringe/rad/blob/master/src/bin.ts
cli docker docker pull cdaringe/rad 1
cli curl+sh `curl .sh
library deno import * as rad from https://github.com/cdaringe/rad/blob/master/src/mod.ts

1For docker users, consider making a nice shell alias

# shell profile, e.g. .bash_profile
function rad() {
  docker run --rm -v <span class="katex"><span class="katex-mathml"><math xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML"><semantics><mrow><mi>P</mi><mi>W</mi><mi>D</mi><mo>:</mo><mi mathvariant="normal">/</mi><mi>r</mi><mi>a</mi><mi>d</mi><mi>c</mi><mi>d</mi><mi>a</mi><mi>r</mi><mi>i</mi><mi>n</mi><mi>g</mi><mi>e</mi><mi mathvariant="normal">/</mi><mi>r</mi><mi>a</mi><mi>d</mi><mi mathvariant="normal">&quot;</mi></mrow><annotation encoding="application/x-tex">PWD:/rad cdaringe/rad &quot;</annotation></semantics></math></span><span class="katex-html" aria-hidden="true"><span class="base"><span class="strut" style="height:0.6833em;"></span><span class="mord mathnormal" style="margin-right:0.13889em;">P</span><span class="mord mathnormal" style="margin-right:0.13889em;">W</span><span class="mord mathnormal" style="margin-right:0.02778em;">D</span><span class="mspace" style="margin-right:0.2778em;"></span><span class="mrel">:</span><span class="mspace" style="margin-right:0.2778em;"></span></span><span class="base"><span class="strut" style="height:1em;vertical-align:-0.25em;"></span><span class="mord">/</span><span class="mord mathnormal" style="margin-right:0.02778em;">r</span><span class="mord mathnormal">a</span><span class="mord mathnormal">d</span><span class="mord mathnormal">c</span><span class="mord mathnormal">d</span><span class="mord mathnormal">a</span><span class="mord mathnormal" style="margin-right:0.02778em;">r</span><span class="mord mathnormal">in</span><span class="mord mathnormal" style="margin-right:0.03588em;">g</span><span class="mord mathnormal">e</span><span class="mord">/</span><span class="mord mathnormal" style="margin-right:0.02778em;">r</span><span class="mord mathnormal">a</span><span class="mord mathnormal">d</span><span class="mord">&quot;</span></span></span></span>@";
}

what is it

a build tool! it competes with make, npm-scripts, bazel, gradle, ant, gulp, or any of the other many tools out there!

rad offers:

  • simple, programmable task interfaces
  • easy to understand, declarative build steps
  • type-checked tasks
  • productive toolkit API for nuanced tasks that benefit from progamming. see toolkit
  • bottom-up, make-style build targets
    • fast builds, skip redundant work when inputs haven’t changed
  • cli mode, or library mode
  • portability. build automation for any language or project, in many environments (*limited to Deno target architectures, for the time being. long term, we may package this in Rust)
  • great UX
  • no quirky DSLs (make, gradle, and friends 😢). your build is code–tasks are typescript & are indeed type-checked!
  • debuggability. 🐛 inspect your data, tasks, or even rad itself
  • a real scripting language–not bash/sh! shell languages are great for running other programs, not for plumbing data

see why not <my-favorite-build-tool>?