Getting started

How to get started

If you're familiar with the structure of our build system, navigate to the Structure page or use this as a quick reference. If you're new to our build system, you can get started by reading this first, then diving deep to the build system structure.

To get started with a very minimal C# application with just building and cleaning support, follow these steps (in Visual Studio Code):

1. Follow the steps to create a minimal C# application here. Let's assume that the root C# application name is NewApp.

2. Open the terminal by going to Terminal > New Terminal (or press the CTRL + SHIFT + ` keys)

3. Execute the git clone https://github.com/Aptivi/tools command

   1. If you've initialized the Git repository for your project, you'll have to clone it as a submodule inside the root directory of your project using the git submodule add https://github.com/Aptivi/tools command and to push the commit.

4. Create the vendor directory

5. Underneath the vendor directory, create two files:

   1. vnd_build.py: This will store commands to initiate the build

   2. vnd_clean.py: This will store commands to initiate the cleanup process, such as wiping older build files

6. Replace the contents of vnd_build.py with:

   import os
   import subprocess
   
   
   def vnd_build(args, extra_args):
       solution = os.path.dirname(os.path.abspath(__file__ + '/../'))
       solution = solution + "/NewApp.slnx"
       command = f"dotnet build {solution} {args if args else ''}"
       result = subprocess.run(command, shell=True)
       if result.returncode != 0:
           raise Exception("Build failed with code %i" % (result.returncode))

7. Replace the contents of vnd_clean.py with:

   import os
   import shutil
   
   
   def vnd_clean(extra_args):
       solution = os.path.dirname(os.path.abspath(__file__ + '/../'))
       outputs = {"bin", "obj"}
       directories = get_dirs(solution)
       final_directories = [d.path for d in directories
                            if d.name in outputs]
       for d in final_directories:
           shutil.rmtree(d, ignore_errors=True)
   
   
   def get_dirs(directory):
       directories = [d for d in os.scandir(directory) if d.is_dir()]
       for d in list(directories):
           directories.extend(get_dirs(d.path))
       return directories

8. Open the terminal emulator on your target platform, change the working directory to the project directory, and execute the build and the clean operations using the following commands:

   $ python ./tools/adt.py build
   $ python ./tools/adt.py clean

If there are no errors, you've created your minimal build system that builds the binary and cleans up old build files!

In order to explore more, take a look at the build system structure to learn more!