Software Alternatives, Accelerators & Startups

CheckInstall VS Ninja Build

Compare CheckInstall VS Ninja Build and see what are their differences

CheckInstall logo CheckInstall

CheckInstall is a Linux program which eases installation & uninstallation of software compiled from source.

Ninja Build logo Ninja Build

Ninja is a small build system with a focus on speed.
  • CheckInstall Landing page
    Landing page //
    2020-09-10
  • Ninja Build Landing page
    Landing page //
    2021-09-14

CheckInstall features and specs

No features have been listed yet.

Ninja Build features and specs

  • Speed
    Ninja is designed for high performance, making it one of the fastest build systems available. It minimizes the time spent on tasks such as parsing, dependency resolution, and build command execution.
  • Simplicity
    Ninja’s configuration syntax is straightforward and concise, reducing the complexity involved in setting up builds and allowing for a clear overview of build rules.
  • Parallelism
    Ninja excels at handling parallel builds, leveraging multiple cores effectively to decrease overall build times.
  • Incremental Builds
    Ninja efficiently handles incremental builds by only recompiling what is necessary, which significantly speeds up iterative development processes.
  • Integration
    Ninja is often used as the backend for more complex build systems (e.g., CMake), making it a versatile tool within a larger toolchain.

Possible disadvantages of Ninja Build

  • Limited Features
    Ninja is deliberately minimalist, lacking many of the features found in other build systems, such as built-in support for complex dependency management and custom build steps.
  • Learning Curve
    While Ninja itself has a simple syntax, the learning curve can be steep for those unfamiliar with how build systems work or for those coming from more feature-rich environments.
  • Dependency on Generators
    Ninja often requires an external generator (like CMake) to create its build files, which can add to the setup complexity and introduce dependencies on other tools.
  • Limited Scripting Capabilities
    Unlike some build systems that offer extensive scripting support (e.g., Python in SCons), Ninja's functionality is largely limited to what its syntax and predefined rules allow.
  • Less Flexibility
    Due to its minimalist nature, Ninja may not be as flexible as other build systems, potentially limiting its use in more complex or unusual build scenarios.

CheckInstall videos

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Ninja Build videos

FORTNITE STW: HERE IS THE BEST NINJA BUILD (AFTER MONTHS OF TESTING)

Category Popularity

0-100% (relative to CheckInstall and Ninja Build)
Front End Package Manager
Package Manager
100 100%
0% 0
JS Build Tools
0 0%
100% 100
JavaScript Package Manager

User comments

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Social recommendations and mentions

Based on our record, Ninja Build should be more popular than CheckInstall. It has been mentiond 22 times since March 2021. We are tracking product recommendations and mentions on various public social media platforms and blogs. They can help you identify which product is more popular and what people think of it.

CheckInstall mentions (3)

  • Are there tools to manage self compiled software?
    Checkinstall to create deb or rpm package out of source installs which you can easily remove with your package manager again. (But this only keeps track of the installed files, doesn't do any dependency tracking). Source: over 3 years ago
  • Completely uninstall/remove package compiled from source?
    There is also checkinstall which you run instead of make install. It creates a (simple) RPM package for you. You can remove that package with your package manager later on for easy uninstallation. Source: almost 4 years ago
  • How do you manage packages installed form tar files?
    Checkinstall is a rather popular way of dealing with self compiled packages. Source: about 4 years ago

Ninja Build mentions (22)

  • TypeScript's Successor is Waiting, and You'll Never Want to Turn Back
    Under the hood, Rescript uses a build system called Ninja. Ninja is similar to Make, but cross-platform and more minimal/performant. - Source: dev.to / over 1 year ago
  • Using Make – writing less Makefile
    Ninja was super easy to pick up even after using make for some time (10+ years). GN is just a ninja generator that is optional. https://gn.googlesource.com/gn/+/main/docs/quick_start.md https://ninja-build.org/. - Source: Hacker News / over 1 year ago
  • Ask HN: What outdated tech are you still using and are perfectly happy with?
    Really? I thought most new projects were switching to ninja[^1] and have never used it. [^1]: https://ninja-build.org/. - Source: Hacker News / over 1 year ago
  • What was used to build C++ programs before Cmake?
    Ninja showed real promise for a while, but then CMake grew up and people stopped seeing a reason to leave it behind. Source: almost 2 years ago
  • Building and Running Pidgin and Finch 3
    Now that you have your build system all generated you can go ahead and build everything. By default Meson will use Ninja as the build tool. Ninja is similar to Make but much much faster. You can also generate additional build systems but that's outside of the scope of this post. - Source: dev.to / about 2 years ago
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What are some alternatives?

When comparing CheckInstall and Ninja Build, you can also consider the following products

Porg - Porg (formerly known as paco), is a program to aid management of software packages installed from source code.

GNU Make - GNU Make is a tool which controls the generation of executables and other non-source files of a program from the program's source files.

Advanced Package Tool - Apt (for Advanced Package Tool) is a set of core tools inside Debian.

SCons - SCons is an Open Source software construction tool—that is, a next-generation build tool.

Yarn - Yarn is a package manager for your code.

Meson - Meson is an open source build system meant to be both extremely fast, and, even more importantly...