⚒️ craftC

A fast, minimal C build tool inspired by Taskfile & Make. Designed for speed, clarity, and cross-platform simplicity.

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🚀 Features

• ⚡ Lightning-fast incremental builds with dependancy tracking
• 🧠 Smart recompilation detection with reasoning
• 🔨 C compiler integration with support for custom flags
• 📦 Static library archiving
• 🔗 Application linking
• ✅ Clear verbose output option
• 🧩 Simple CLI
• 🧰 Cross-platform: Linux, (macOS, Windows not tested yet)

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📦 Installation

Install with Go:

go install github.com/ameergituser/craftc@latest

Or clone and build manually:

git clone https://github.com/ameergituser/craftc
cd craftc
go build .

🧩 Usage Examples

The examples below use the verbose flag to print output to the console.

1. Build an object file

Use the obj command:

craftc obj -cc cc -cfile ./libsrc1.c -cflags "-Wall -O2" -objdir ./build/obj -v

Output:

[build] 🧠 build/obj/libsrc1.c.o: object file does not exist.
[compile] 🔨 /usr/bin/cc -Wall -O2 -MMD -MF build/obj/libsrc.libsrc1.c.d -c ./libsrc1.c -o build/obj/libsrc1.c.o

Re-run:

✅ build/obj/libsrc1.c.o is up to date.

2. Build multiple object files concurrently

Use the objs command:

craftc objs -cc cc -cfiles "./libsrc1.c ./libsrc2.c" -cflags "-Wall" -objdir ./build/obj -v

Output:

[build] 🧠 build/obj/libsrc2.c.o: object file does not exist.
[build] 🧠 build/obj/libsrc1.c.o: object file does not exist.
[compile] 🔨 /usr/bin/cc -Wall -MMD -MF build/obj/libsrc2.c.d -c ./libsrc2.c -o build/obj/libsrc2.c.o
[compile] 🔨 /usr/bin/cc -Wall -MMD -MF build/obj/libsrc1.c.d -c ./libsrc1.c -o build/obj/libsrc1.c.o

3. Build a static library

Use the static-lib command:

craftc static-lib -cc cc -cfiles "./libsrc1.c ./libsrc2.c" -cflags "-Wall -O2" -lib-path "./build/lib.a" -objdir ./build/obj -v

Output:

[build] 🧠 build/obj/libsrc2.c.o: object file does not exist.
[build] 🧠 build/obj/libsrc1.c.o: object file does not exist.
[compile] 🔨 /usr/bin/cc -Wall -O2 -MMD -MF build/obj/libsrc2.c.d -c ./libsrc2.c -o build/obj/libsrc2.c.o
[compile] 🔨 /usr/bin/cc -Wall -O2 -MMD -MF build/obj/libsrc1.c.d -c ./libsrc1.c -o build/obj/libsrc1.c.o
[archive] 📦 /usr/bin/ar rcs ./build/lib.a build/obj/libsrc1.c.o build/obj/libsrc2.c.o

Re-run:

✅ build/obj/libsrc2.c.o is up to date.
✅ build/obj/libsrc1.c.o is up to date.
✅ 📦 ./build/lib.a is up to date.

4. Build an executable

We also statically link against a library.
Use the exe command:

craftc exe -cc cc -cfiles "main.c" -objdir ./build/obj -cflags "-Wall -O2 -I ./libsrc" -lib-paths "./build/lib.a" -exe-path ./app

Output:

[build] 🧠 build/obj/main.c.o: object file does not exist.
[compile] 🔨 /usr/bin/cc -Wall -O2 -I ./libsrc -MMD -MF build/obj/main.c.d -c ./main.c -o build/obj/main.c.o
[linking] 🔗 /usr/bin/cc build/obj/main.c.o ./build/lib.a -o ./build/app

Re-run:

✅ build/obj/main.c.o is up to date.
✅ 🚀 ./build/app is up to date.

5. Task integration

Craftc's commands are designed to be composable. This makes it simple and easy to understand and integrate into other tools such as Task.

The example below utlises Task to build an executable, and also build the dependancy library is required.

Example:

version: '3'

tasks:

  lib:
    desc: Build a static library with a few source files
    vars:
      BUILD_DIR: ./build/{{.TASK}}
      OBJ_DIR: '{{.BUILD_DIR}}/obj'
      SRC: ./libsrc/libsrc1.c ./libsrc/libsrc2.c
      STATIC_LIB: '{{.BUILD_DIR}}/{{.TASK}}.a'
      CFLAGS: -Wall -O2
    cmds:
      - ./craftc static-lib -cc cc -cfiles "{{.SRC}}" -objdir {{.OBJ_DIR}} -cflags "{{.CFLAGS}}" -lib-path "{{.STATIC_LIB}}" -i {{.CLI_ARGS}}


  exe:
    desc: Build an exe cmd with a few source files
    vars:
      BUILD_DIR: ./build/{{.TASK}}
      OBJ_DIR: '{{.BUILD_DIR}}/obj'
      SRC: ./appsrc/main.c
      STATIC_LIB: ./build/lib/lib.a
      CFLAGS: -Wall -O2 -I ./libsrc
      # LDFLAGS: -Wl,--trace
      APP_PATH: '{{.BUILD_DIR}}/{{.TASK}}-app'
    deps:
      - task: lib
    cmds:
      - >
        ./craftc exe
        -cc cc
        -cfiles "{{.SRC}}"
        -objdir {{.OBJ_DIR}}
        -cflags "{{.CFLAGS}}"
        -ldflags "{{.LDFLAGS}}"
        -exe-path {{.APP_PATH}}
        -lib-paths "{{.STATIC_LIB}}"
        -i {{.CLI_ARGS}}

Output:

[build] 🧠 build/lib/obj/libsrc.libsrc2.c.o: object file does not exist.
[build] 🧠 build/lib/obj/libsrc.libsrc1.c.o: object file does not exist.
[compile] 🔨 /usr/bin/cc -Wall -O2 -MMD -MF build/lib/obj/libsrc.libsrc1.c.d -c ./libsrc/libsrc1.c -o build/lib/obj/libsrc.libsrc1.c.o
[compile] 🔨 /usr/bin/cc -Wall -O2 -MMD -MF build/test4/obj/libsrc.libsrc2.c.d -c ./libsrc/libsrc2.c -o build/lib/obj/libsrc.libsrc2.c.o
[archive] 📦 /usr/bin/ar rcs ./build/lib/lib.a build/lib/obj/libsrc.libsrc1.c.o build/lib/obj/libsrc.libsrc2.c.o
[build] 🧠 build/exe/obj/appsrc.main.c.o: object file does not exist.
[compile] 🔨 /usr/bin/cc -Wall -O2 -I ./libsrc -MMD -MF build/exe/obj/appsrc.main.c.d -c ./appsrc/main.c -o build/exe/obj/appsrc.main.c.o
[linking] 🔗 /usr/bin/cc build/exe/obj/appsrc.main.c.o ./build/lib/lib.a -o ./build/exe/app

Re-run:

✅ build/lib/obj/libsrc.libsrc2.c.o is up to date.
✅ build/lib/obj/libsrc.libsrc1.c.o is up to date.
✅ 📦 ./build/lib/lib.a is up to date.
✅ build/exe/obj/appsrc.main.c.o is up to date.
✅ 🚀 ./build/exe/app is up to date.