buildtools/jam/README

Jam - make(1) redux

    /+\
    +\	Copyright 1993-2002 Christopher Seiwald and Perforce Software, Inc.
    \+/

    This is Release 2.5 of Jam, a make-like program.

    License is hereby granted to use this software and distribute it
    freely, as long as this copyright notice is retained and modifications 
    are clearly marked.

    ALL WARRANTIES ARE HEREBY DISCLAIMED.

FEATURES

   ->	Jam is a make(1) replacement that makes building simple things
	simple and building complicated things manageable.

   ->	Jam's language is expressive, making Jamfiles (c.f. Makefiles) 
	compact.  Here's a sample:

	    Main smail : main.c map.c resolve.c deliver.c
			 misc.c parser.y alias.c pw.c headers.c
			 scanner.l getpath.c str.c ;

	This builds "smail" from a dozen source files.  Jam handles 
	header file dependencies automatically and on-the-fly.

   ->	Jam is very portable: it runs on UNIX, VMS, Mac, and NT.  
	Most Jamfiles themselves are portable, like the sample above.

   ->   Jam is unintrusive: it is small, it has negligible CPU 
	overhead, and it doesn't create any of its own funny files
	(c.f. Odin, nmake, SunOS make).

   ->	Jam can build large projects spread across many directories
	in one pass, without recursing, tracking the relationships
	among all files. Jam can do this with multiple, concurrent 
	processes.

   ->   Jam isn't under the blinkin GNU copyright, so you can 
	incorporate it into commercial products.


INFORMATION GUIDE

    Jam.html		jam and language reference.

    Jambase.html	Reference for the Jambase boilerplate file.

    Jamfile.html	Easy reading on creating a Jamfile and using jam.

    RELNOTES		Release 2.3 release notes.

    Porting		Notes on porting jam to wildcat platforms.

    README		This file.  Includes installation instructions.

    jam.c		Contains the jam command's main() as well as an 
			introduction to the code, for serious hackers.


INSTALLING

    The Makefile (UNIX, NT), build.com (VMS), Build.mpw (Mac MPW) are 
    for bootstrapping.  Once jam is built, it can rebuild itself.

    UNIX

	Build jam with make(1) on:

	    Platform		$(OS) 
	    -------------------------
	    AIX			AIX		*	
	    BSD/386 1.0		BSDI
	    COHERENT/386	COHERENT
	    DGUX 5.4		DGUX
	    FreeBSD		FREEBSD
	    HPUX 9.0		HPUX
	    IRIX 5.0		IRIX
	    Linux		LINUX
	    NEXTSTEP 3.2	NEXT
	    OSF/1		OSF
	    PTX V2.1.0		PTX
	    Solaris 2		SOLARIS		*
	    SunOS4.1		SUNOS
	    Ultrix 4.2		ULTRIX
	    BeOS		BEOS		*

	    * requires editing Makefile

    Windows

	Build jam with nmake on:

	    Platform		$(OS)
	    -------------------------
	    NT			NT		*
	    OS/2		OS2		*

	The NT MAXLINE (command line length) is still set in jam.h to
	996, which was apparently the NT 3.5 limit. On 4.0, the limit 
	is somewhere around 10K. For now, you can increase MAXLINE in 
	jam.h so that a jam running on 4.0 will use the full command
	line length, but that jam.exe will fail miserably on the older OS.

	On NT, a variable must be set before invoking jam to tell
	it where the C compiler lives.  The name of this variable
	depends on which compiler you are using:

	    BCCROOT:	The Borland C compiler
	    MSVCDIR:	The Microsoft Compiler 6.0 (for NT)
	    MSVCNT:	The Microsoft Compiler 5.0 (for NT)
	    MSVC:	The Microsoft Compiler 1.5 (for Windows)

	Only MSVCNT and MSVCDIR have really been tested and are known
	to work.

    Macintosh

	Build jam with Build.mpw on:

	    Platform		$(OS)
	    -------------------------
	    Macintosh		MAC		

	You'll need to edit Build.mpw to set CW.  

    VMS

    	Build jam with @build.com on:

	    Platform		$(OS)
	    -------------------------
	    VMS 5.4		VMS
	    OPENVMS		OPENVMS

Comments to the author!

November, 1993 - release 1.0
March, 1995 - release 2.0 
February, 1996 - release 2.1
November, 1997 - release 2.2
December, 2000 - release 2.3
March, 2002 - release 2.4
December, 2002 - release 2.5


Christopher Seiwald

seiwald@perforce.com