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GNU Make VS Bazel

Compare GNU Make VS Bazel and see what are their differences

GNU Make logo 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.

Bazel logo Bazel

Bazel is a tool that automates software builds and tests.
  • GNU Make Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-03-12
  • Bazel Landing page
    Landing page //
    2024-07-17

GNU Make features and specs

  • Portability
    GNU Make is highly portable and can be used across various Unix-like operating systems as well as on Windows.
  • Dependency Management
    It efficiently handles complex dependencies between various parts of the software, ensuring that changes are propagated properly.
  • Open Source
    Being open-source software, GNU Make is freely available and can be modified according to user needs.
  • Wide Adoption
    It is widely adopted in the industry, which means that there is extensive documentation and a large community for support.
  • Efficiency
    GNU Make speeds up the build process by only recompiling the necessary parts of the codebase.

Possible disadvantages of GNU Make

  • Complex Syntax
    The syntax of GNU Makefiles can become very complex, especially for large projects, making them hard to read and maintain.
  • Limited Cross-Platform Scripting
    While the tool itself is cross-platform, Makefiles can sometimes include shell commands that are not portable.
  • Steep Learning Curve
    Beginners may find it challenging to grasp the concepts and syntax of GNU Make, leading to a steep learning curve.
  • Debugging Difficulty
    Debugging Makefiles can be difficult, with limited tools available to trace or step through the make process.
  • Performance Bottlenecks
    For extremely large projects, performance can become an issue, as the evaluation of dependencies might become slow.

Bazel features and specs

  • High Scalability
    Bazel is designed to handle large codebases and complex dependency graphs efficiently, which makes it suitable for projects with millions of lines of code.
  • Incremental Builds
    Bazel supports incremental builds by only rebuilding parts of the project that have changed, thus saving time and computational resources.
  • Cross-Platform Support
    Bazel supports different platforms including Linux, MacOS, and Windows, enabling consistent build processes across diverse development environments.
  • Reproducible Builds
    It ensures that the same source code will yield identical build outputs, which is beneficial for debugging and ensuring consistency across different environments.
  • Extensibility
    Bazel is highly extensible, allowing developers to define custom build rules and macros to fit their specific needs.
  • Wide Language Support
    Out of the box, Bazel supports many programming languages such as Java, C++, Python, and Go, with the ability to extend to other languages.

Possible disadvantages of Bazel

  • Steep Learning Curve
    Bazel has a complex configuration language and many internal concepts, which might be challenging for new users to learn and adopt quickly.
  • Limited IDE Integration
    Compared to other build systems, Bazel might have limited or less mature support in certain Integrated Development Environments (IDEs), potentially hindering productivity.
  • Overhead of Remote Caching
    While remote caching is a powerful feature, setting it up and maintaining it can introduce additional overhead and complexity to the build process.
  • Initial Setup Complexity
    Getting a project up and running with Bazel can require significant upfront configuration, especially for projects migrating from another build system.
  • Limited Community Support
    Compared to more established build systems, Bazel has a smaller community, which might result in fewer resources and shared knowledge available online.

Analysis of GNU Make

Overall verdict

  • Yes, GNU Make is a robust and reliable tool for managing build processes. Its long-established reputation and widespread use in both open-source and commercial projects underline its effectiveness and flexibility.

Why this product is good

  • GNU Make is widely used because it automates the build process, efficiently handling dependencies and detecting minimal sets of changes in source files. It is highly customizable, supports non-recursive builds, and integrates well into various development environments.

Recommended for

  • Software developers working on C/C++ projects
  • Teams looking to automate build processes
  • Projects that require cross-platform build capabilities
  • Developers who prefer command-line tools
  • Open-source project maintainers

Analysis of Bazel

Overall verdict

  • Bazel is a powerful and robust build tool, especially for large-scale projects and organizations that require high build performance and scalability. Its advanced features can significantly improve the efficiency of development workflows. However, there is a learning curve, and the complexity of rules and configurations may not suit smaller projects or those with simpler build requirements.

Why this product is good

  • Bazel is a build tool developed by Google that is designed to support fast and correct builds. It is particularly known for its ability to handle large codebases and complex build dependencies efficiently. Bazel uses a single build language across different platforms, and its build system provides features such as incremental builds, remote build execution, and caching, which make it highly suitable for repetitive and reproducible builds. The tool is capable of handling projects written in multiple languages, such as Java, C++, Python, and more, due to its extensibility with custom rules.

Recommended for

  • Large-scale and complex software projects
  • Organizations that utilize monorepos
  • Developers needing cross-platform support
  • Teams looking to leverage remote build execution
  • Projects with complex dependencies across multiple programming languages

GNU Make videos

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Bazel videos

Kebenaran dari Powerbank Bazel 450 Series

More videos:

  • Review - BazelCon 2019 Day 2: Half-Day Bazel Bootcamp (Part 1)
  • Review - What's new in Bazel build and Gerrit Code Review

Category Popularity

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Front End Package Manager
JS Build Tools
100 100%
0% 0
JavaScript Package Manager
DevOps Tools
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100% 100

User comments

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Social recommendations and mentions

Based on our record, Bazel seems to be more popular. It has been mentiond 67 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.

GNU Make mentions (0)

We have not tracked any mentions of GNU Make yet. Tracking of GNU Make recommendations started around Mar 2021.

Bazel mentions (67)

  • Swift and Cute 2D Game Framework: Setting Up a Project with CMake
    I really recommend Bazel (https://bazel.build). - Source: Hacker News / 4 months ago
  • Why Is This Site Built with C
    Agree regarding easiness of building rust (`cargo build`), extremely satisfying (git clone and cargo build...) Does anyone have any comments on Bazel[1] because I'm kind of settling on using it whenever it's appropriate (c/c++)?.. [1] https://bazel.build/. - Source: Hacker News / 6 months ago
  • 7 Ways to Use the SLSA Framework to Secure the SDLC
    To achieve reproducibility, your build process must control for environmental differences like timestamps, file ordering, or machine-specific configurations. Tools like Bazel or Nixprovide deterministic build systems that lock down these variables. For instance, Bazel uses a content-addressable cache, meaning the same source code and dependencies always result in the same build outputs, even when run on different... - Source: dev.to / 11 months ago
  • Contributing To Open Source - C++ Edition
    Despite following all the steps (on both Windows and Unix), I couldn't get the cmake build to succeed. After several hours of debugging, I decided to try another build method provided by the project, using bazel, which was much simpler. - Source: dev.to / 12 months ago
  • How to effectively work in big codebases
    Many big companies have built their own tools to reign in this complexity and make it easier and faster for developers to work on large, multi-language code bases. Meta has buck, Amazon has brazil, and Google has bazel. But from my experience, especially, with brazil, these tools also have some rough edges, so understanding how they work can go a long way. - Source: dev.to / about 1 year ago
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What are some alternatives?

When comparing GNU Make and Bazel, you can also consider the following products

CMake - CMake is an open-source, cross-platform family of tools designed to build, test and package software.

Gradle - Accelerate developer productivity. Gradle helps teams build, automate and deliver better software, faster. DocsExplore the documentation of Gradle. Find installation ..

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

Ninja Build - Ninja is a small build system with a focus on speed.

SBT - SBT is a build tool for Scala, like Ant or Maven but with hieroglyphics.

npm - npm is a package manager for Node.