985c58103c
- Rename executable to premake5 - Default to premake5.lua project script; fallback to premake4.lua if not found - Clean up internal references to premake4 naming
123 lines
4.5 KiB
Plaintext
123 lines
4.5 KiB
Plaintext
PREMAKE BUILD INSTRUCTIONS
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Premake is written in a mix of C and Lua. This mix enables many new
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features, but also makes building Premake a bit more complicated than
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your typical application.
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If you downloaded a source code package from SourceForge (as opposed
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to pulling the sources from the repository), you will find project
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files for all of the currently supported toolsets in the build/ folder.
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Build the release configuration (the default for the makefiles) and you
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will find the executable in bin/release ready to go.
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If you want to use a debug build instead, or if you pulled the sources
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from BitBucket instead of a SourceForge release, or if you plan on
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making changes to Premake, read the next section to learn how to
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prepare the project files.
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If you find all of this very confusing and need some help, see the end
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of this document for contact information. I'll be glad to help. And if
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you have any suggestions for improving this process, we'd be glad to
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hear them too.
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GENERATING THE PROJECT FILES
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If you downloaded a source code package from SourceForge, the project
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files are already included (in build/) and you can skip ahead to the
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next section.
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If you pulled the sources from BitBucket, you'll need to generate your
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own project files before you can build.
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We use Premake to generate the project files for Premake (bootstrapping,
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or eating our own dog food). So in order to generate the project files,
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you need to have a working version of Premake 5.x installed on your
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system. You can get it as source code (with pre-generated project files
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ready to build) or a prebuilt binary from the SourceForge download page.
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Once you have a working Premake 5.x installed, the first thing you need
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to do is to embed the Lua scripts into the application by running this
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command in the top-level Premake directory:
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premake5 embed
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This creates a C file (at src/host/scripts.c) which contains all of the
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Lua scripts as static string buffers. These then get compiled into the
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executable, which is how we get away with shipping a single file instead
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of one executable and whole bunch of scripts. See EMBEDDING THE SCRIPTS,
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below, for more information.
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Now you can generate project files for your toolset of choice by running
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a command like:
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premake5 gmake -- for GNU makefiles using GCC
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premake5 vs2008 -- for a Visual Studio 2008 solution
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Use the "--help" option to see all of the available targets.
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This will create a solution/makefile/workspace in the top-level folder,
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which you can now go ahead and build.
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RELEASE vs. DEBUG BUILDS
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Premake can be built in either "release" or "debug" modes. Makefile users
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can choose which configuration to build with the "config" argument:
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make config=debug -- build in debug mode
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make config=release -- build in release mode
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IDEs like Visual Studio provide their own mechanism for switching build
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configurations.
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In release mode you can build and run Premake like any other C application
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(once you've embedded the scripts, see the next section).
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In debug mode, Premake ignores the embedded Lua scripts and instead reads the
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latest versions from the disk at runtime. This allows you to change a script,
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and then immediately test it without having to embed or compile first. Speedy!
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But Premake needs some help to find the scripts.
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You can specify the location of the scripts in one of two ways: using
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the /scripts command line argument, like so:
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premake5 /scripts=~/Code/premake5/src gmake
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Or by setting a PREMAKE_PATH environment variable.
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PREMAKE_PATH=~/Code/premake5/src
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As you can see, you need to specify the location of the Premake "src"
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directory, the one containing "_premake_main.lua".
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EMBEDDING THE SCRIPTS
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One of the nice things about Premake is that it comes as a single file,
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easy to install or move around. To manage this, we need to embed all of
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the Lua scripts into the executable, so we can deliver just the one file,
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rather than an executable and a whole bunch of scripts.
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Scripts are embedded by running the command
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premake5 embed
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This copies all of the scripts listed in _manifest.lua into the file
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src/host/scripts.c, where they are represented as a set of static C
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string buffers. This file is then compiled as part of Premake's release
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builds.
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So: very important to embed the scripts before each release build!
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CONFUSED?
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I'll be glad to help you out. Stop by the main project website where
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you can leave a note in the forums (the preferred approach), join the
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mailing list, or contact me directly.
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http://industriousone.com/premake
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Enjoy!
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