Fundamentals

Depending on the operating system, one of the two bootstrapping scripts for PowerShell or BASH can be used to execute a build:

$ ./build.sh [targets] [arguments]
$ .\build.ps1 [targets] [arguments]

Note

Executing a build triggers the creation of a directory ./tmp for temporary files that should not be committed. It is recommended to create an VCS ignore entry.

Arguments

Arguments can be passed either in lisp-case or camel-case style with either single or double dash as prefix. The preferred variant is lisp-case with two dashes, which is also used for the global tool shell-completion:

$ build --target pack --configuration release --api-key 12345

Certain parameters can accept collections of values that are separated with a space. The built-in parameters --target or --skip also allow the plus sign for value separation:

$ build --target test pack --skip clean+restore

Note

The --skip parameter can also be passed as a pure switch, i.e. without any targets as arguments. In this case, only the invoked targets will be executed, which greatly enhances troubleshooting.

Summary

At the end of every build execution, a summary with statuses and elapsed time per each target is displayed. Also error and warning descriptions are repeatedly printed:

No errors or warnings.

=======================================
Target             Status      Duration
---------------------------------------
Clean              Executed        0:00
Restore            Executed        0:05
Compile            Executed        0:26
---------------------------------------
Total                              0:32
=======================================

Build succeeded on 01/01/2018 14:00:00.

Help

A list of available targets, predefined parameters as well as custom declared parameters can always be shown by passing the --help switch. Targets are shown along their direct dependencies, while custom parameters are separated from predefined ones:

A visual representation for all target dependencies can be shown by passing the --plan switch. Hovering a target reveals its individual execution plan:

The default target is highlighted in light-blue. Solid grey edges mark execution dependencies, dashed grey edges signal ordering dependencies and solid yellow lines indicate triggers.