The action class

An action is performed in order to (re-)generate an artefact. it uses either a command string (executed in a platform-specific shell), or a Python callable.

Constructor

action(): Construct an empty (abstract) action. This is useful to define an abstract tool.

action(command): Construct an action from the given command (string).

action(name, command): Construct an action with the given name, from the given command (string).

Call operator

__call__(target, source): Call the action explicitely. Returns success.

Examples

# define some actions
compile = action('c++.compile', 'c++ -c -o $(<) $(>)')
link = action('c++.link', 'c++ -o $(<) $(>)')
test = action('run_test', '$(>)')

# this demonstrates how to compound actions
def run_test(target, source):
  if test(target, source):
    print('PASS')
  else:
    print('FAIL')

# bind target to source using the above rules
obj = rule(compile, 'hello.o', 'hello.cpp')
bin = rule(link, 'hello', obj)
t = rule(run_test, 'test', bin, attrs=notfile|always)