Meson
Meson is an open-source build system focused on speed and ease of use. It is designed to optimize the build process by detecting changes in projects faster and providing useful error messages. Meson supports many languages and build tools.
build-system
compiler
open-source
Meson: Open-Source Build System for Speed and Ease
Meson is an open-source build system focused on speed and ease of use, detecting changes in projects faster and providing useful error messages, supporting many languages and build tools.
What is Meson?
Meson is an open-source build system designed to be extremely fast and easy to use. It aims to improve upon existing build systems like Autotools and CMake by providing better defaults, intuitive syntax, and useful error messages that help developers debug issues faster.
Some key highlights of Meson include:
- Very fast build times by only recompiling what is needed
- Support for many languages like C, C++, Fortran, Java, Rust, and more
- Integration with build tools like Ninja, Visual Studio, and Xcode
- Easy to read configuration files written in an INI-like format
- Cross-platform with support for Linux, macOS, and Windows
- Dependency management through subprojects and wrap files
- Customizable through templates, arguments, substitutions, and overrides
Meson aims to make the build process seamless so developers can focus on coding rather than debugging tricky build issues. Its speed, simplicity, and platform support have quickly made it a popular choice for many open-source projects.
Meson Features
Features
- Fast build times
- Intuitive syntax
- Cross-platform support
- Integration with popular build tools and languages
- Dependency management
- Support for tests and benchmarks
- Customizable build configuration
Pricing
- Open Source
Pros
Very fast compared to other build systems
Simple configuration using Python DSL
Easy to use and learn
Detects changes quickly to avoid unnecessary rebuilds
Good error messages
Lightweight with few dependencies
Cons
Limited adoption outside C/C++ projects
Less flexibility than some other build tools
Lacks some advanced features of tools like CMake
Less third-party integration compared to older systems
Official Links
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