Bazel
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CommentsWhat is Bazel?
Bazel is a build tool that builds code quickly and reliably. It is used to build the majority of Google's software, and thus it has been designed to handle build problems present in Google's development environment.
Bazel is a tool in the Build Automation category of a tech stack.
Key Features
Multi-language support: Bazel supports Java, Objective-C and C++ out of the box, and can be extended to support arbitrary programming languagesHigh-level build language: Projects are described in the BUILD language, a concise text format that describes a project as sets of small interconnected libraries, binaries and tests. By contrast, with tools like Make you have to describe individual files and compiler invocationsMulti-platform support: The same tool and the same BUILD files can be used to build software for different architectures, and even different platforms. At Google, we use Bazel to build both server applications running on systems in our data centers and client apps running on mobile phonesReproducibility: In BUILD files, each library, test, and binary must specify its direct dependencies completely. Bazel uses this dependency information to know what must be rebuilt when you make changes to a source file, and which tasks can run in parallel. This means that all builds are incremental and will always produce the same resultScalable: Bazel can handle large builds
Bazel Pros & Cons
Pros of Bazel
- ✓Fast
- ✓Deterministic incremental builds
- ✓Correct
- ✓Multi-language
- ✓Enforces declared inputs/outputs
- ✓High-level build language
- ✓Scalable
- ✓Multi-platform support
- ✓Sandboxing
- ✓Dependency management
Cons of Bazel
- ✗No Windows Support
- ✗Bad IntelliJ support
- ✗Constant breaking changes
- ✗Lack of Documentation
- ✗Learning Curve
- ✗Poor windows support for some languages
Bazel Alternatives & Comparisons
What are some alternatives to Bazel?
Gradle
Gradle is a build tool with a focus on build automation and support for multi-language development. If you are building, testing, publishing, and deploying software on any platform, Gradle offers a flexible model that can support the entire development lifecycle from compiling and packaging code to publishing web sites.
CMake
It is used to control the software compilation process using simple platform and compiler independent configuration files, and generate native makefiles and workspaces that can be used in the compiler environment of the user's choice.
Apache Maven
Maven allows a project to build using its project object model (POM) and a set of plugins that are shared by all projects using Maven, providing a uniform build system. Once you familiarize yourself with how one Maven project builds you automatically know how all Maven projects build saving you immense amounts of time when trying to navigate many projects.