How builds work

Learn how HCL VersionVault build works.

In many ways, VersionVault builds adhere closely to the standard make paradigm:

1. You start clearmake, optionally specifying the names of one or more targets. (Such explicitly specified targets are called goal targets.)
2. clearmake reads zero or more makefiles, each of which contains targets and their associated build scripts. It also reads zero or more build options specification (BOS) files, which supplement the information in the makefiles.
3. clearmake supplements the makefile-based software build instructions with its own built-in rules or, when it runs in a compatibility mode, with built-in rules specific to that mode.
4. For each target, clearmake performs build avoidance, determining whether it actually needs to execute the associated build script (target rebuild). It takes into account both source dependencies (Have any changes occurred in source files used in building the target?) and build dependencies (Must other targets be updated before this one?).
5. If a target meets the rebuild criteria of clearmake, then clearmake executes its build script.