Do - The Simplest Build Tool on Earth

Do or do.sh [dosh] is a build tool and a build file in one and the same self-executable shell script 🪄. (Read that again)

• ✅ No installation (Just Copy & Paste the starter script)
• ✅ No libraries
• ✅ No dependencies
• ✅ Easy to use and understand
• ✅ Simple to extend
• ✅ Runs on anything with a Shell
• 🔴 Is not intended to replace a full blown build tool

Why Do.sh

There are many build-tools that are more powerful, versatile or expressive than Do.sh. If you are already using a well-known build tool, then keep on using it. Do is for use cases where the major build tools aren't the best fit. The second purpose of Do is to tame the complexity of usual Shell build scripts. Do provides a consistent reference, interface, documentation and best practices on how to write build scripts.

Do scripts should be recognizable and understandable even if they are customized.

Typical Use Cases

Some use cases where Do can shine are:

• A Build Tool or CI/CD pipeline that interact nicely with the Shell. Use Do to apply a consistent workflow and syntax.
• Golang's go already provides some build tool like functionality and most of the major build tools are too much to justify the overhead. A combination of a few commands will Do it.
• Building or Deploying Container Images can get out of hand quickly, Do can help by providing a consistent and understandable flow to build, ship and run images.
• Declarative CI/CD Build files like GitLabCI or TravisCI can become quite complex and are hard to test locally. Do can help here by wrapping those commands in Do tasks and make them locally testable. At the same time it will reduce the Build files making them easy understandable.

If you have some other use cases where Do can shine, open an issue or submit a PR.

Installation

The simplest way to use Do is to copy and paste the content of the do.sh file into your project and extend it as needed.

Usage

Do expects one argument on what to do, If more than one argument is provided, then the following arguments are all passed on to the task. See do.arguments.sh in examples directory.

$ ./do.sh build
I am building
...

If no argument is provided Do prints out a help message with all the available tasks.

$ ./do.sh
Usage:
   ./do.sh (all|build|deploy|test)

Take also a look into the Examples Directory to see different use cases of Do.

Concept

The concept of Do is simple to explain. Functions are Tasks and Tasks can be combined to new Tasks. Tasks can also accept parameters and return values.

It is possible to define as many tasks as needed. The Do template for defines build, test, deploy, all for your convenience.

#!/usr/bin/env sh
# Do - The Simplest Build Tool on Earth.
# Documentation and examples see https://github.com/8gears/do

set -e -u # -e "Automatic exit from bash shell script on error"  -u "Treat unset variables and parameters as errors"

build() {
   echo "I am ${FUNCNAME[0]}ing"
   exit 1
}

test() {
   echo "I am ${FUNCNAME[0]}ing"
}

deploy() {
   echo "I am ${FUNCNAME[0]}ing"
}

all() {
   build && test && deploy
}

_hidden() {
   echo "I am a hidden task and won't appear in the usage desciption because I start with an _ (underscore). If you know me you can still call me directly"
}

"$@" # <- execute the task

[ "$#" -gt 0 ] || printf "Usage:\n\t./do.sh %s\n" "($(compgen -A function | grep '^[^_]' | paste -sd '|' -))"

In case no argument was provided the line let $# || echo "Usage:\n\t./do.sh ($(compgen -A function | paste -sd '|' -))" will print out a help message with all the available tasks in this build file.

It is important to be disciplined with Do and avoid adding too much complexity, which is common in the case of shell scripts. Otherwise, it would blur the simple syntax of Do and make it harder for others to understand the build file. In doubt KISS.

Convenience

For your convenience you can create an alias in your ~/.zsrc|.bashrc file

alias doo='./do.sh'

From now on you can type >doo instead of ./do.sh The second ois there too not get confused with the reserved looping construct worddo.

Examples

The examples directory contains a few different usage examples for do.

How To Contribute

You can contribute by improving do.sh or by providing examples on how to use Do in an elegant or creative way. Follow the KISS principle. Don't add complexity. Don't make it bigger than needed.

Create an issue describing the problem you a trying to solve to start a discussion. Do the changes and open a merge request.

Projects using Do

There aren't any public projects yet, If you have one open a PR to add your project here.

Related Tools

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• godo godo is a task runner and file watcher for golang in the spirit of rake, gulp. It has kind of same name.