Metabuild \ˈme-tə-ˌbild\ ● proper noun — fr. META-, prefix "beyond, transcending" + BUILD, v. "to construct with great suffering" ● cf. alt. "Make Everything Trivial And Build Universally In Linux Dockerland" (backronym, chiefly among the sleep-deprived) occasionally pseudo-Latin "metabuildicus" — liberation from toolchain tyranny...

1. A zero-to-hero, cross-platform build cocoon — engineered to spare developers from the Sisyphean torment of dependency management across seventeen different operating systems.

2. (colloq.) Docker-powered salvation for those who've grown weary of explaining why their code compiles on Tuesday but not Wednesday, or why Jessica's MacBook spawns binaries while Jenkins weeps.

3. Specialized refuge for the architecturally promiscuous — ARM64 here, WASM there, x86 everywhere, all from the same sanctified make incantation.

4. Think: Vagrant's disciplined cousin who ACTUALLY GRADUATED from build school and now runs a tight ship with Alpine precision.

Someone has to keep the runtime honest...

Prerequisite: a working installation of Docker Instalation (any recent 24-plus release on macOS, Windows, or modern Linux). That’s it!!! — Now go forth and make without fear — your local machine remains pristine.

To install you simply run:

Unix/Linux/macOS:

curl -L https://github.com/frinknet/metabuild/raw/main/install.sh | sh

Windows:

iex (iwr https://github.com/frinknet/metabuild/raw/main/install.bat).Content

Docker (for the curious):

docker pull ghcr.io/frinknet/metabuild:latest
docker tag ghcr.io/frinknet/metabuild:latest metabuild
echo -e '#/bin/sh\ndocker run --rm -it -u $(id -u):$(id -g) -v "$(pwd):/build" metabuild "$@"' > metabuild.sh
chmod +x metabuild.sh

Or for the lite version:

curl -L https://github.com/frinknet/metabuild/raw/main/install.sh | sh -s -- lite

iex ((iwr 'https://github.com/frinknet/metabuild/raw/main/install.bat').Content + ' lite')

docker pull ghcr.io/frinknet/metabuild:lite
docker tag ghcr.io/frinknet/metabuild:lite metabuild
echo -e '#/bin/sh\ndocker run --rm -it -u $(id -u):$(id -g) -v "$(pwd):/build" metabuild "$@"' > metabuild.sh
chmod +x metabuild.sh

Zero Config Needed

Makefiles suck when you have to hand write them by hand. But CMake, Ninja, waf, and their kin suck more. We give you a premium Makefile to start with with testing and multi-arch builds. To use the builtin Makefile just make sure your files structure follows our exact directory pattern. Right now this only works for C and C++. However, We are planning to expand this to Go and Rust soon.

Path	What lives here	Why it matters
lib/	Git submodules only	External code; pulled shallow for speed.
syslib/	System headers	Pretend-system roots for exotic targets.
include/	Project headers	Stable API surface.
src/<app>/	Source trees	Each sub-dir becomes its own executable in out/<target>/bin/.
src/templates/<template>/	Scaffolding Templates	metabuild new [template] [name] clones a template straight into src/.
test/unit/	Unit Tests	Run with pattern targets like unit-test-name.
test/case/	Case Tests	Run with pattern targets like case-test-name.
test/load/	Load Tests$	Run with pattern targets like load-test-name.
out/<target>/	Build artefacts	Autogenerated; ignored by Git.
docs/	Documentation	Any docs needed to run stuff.
web/	Web subsystems	Should use a separate container.

Hacking the System

You can change the internal Makefiles to your liking using our metabuild extend. This Installs the Makefile locally so you can hack it up however you need. We prefer your makefile over ours so you can do as you need.

Additionally, you can install just the build scripts with metabuild init although our system will work fine without it. But that way youcan ship your project with a buildscript that just works. This is the recomended use case for professional projects.

You can also fork this repo and hack the entire system. All of the github actions are generic so your for will build its own container automatically. However, you may need to go into Github and make your package container public after the first build.