What is Postmake?
Postmake is an open-source workflow automation and task runner tool designed for software developers. It allows automating repetitive development tasks like compilation, packaging, deployment, continuous integration, testing etc. Postmake is inspired by traditional Make utility but provides additional features to suit modern development workflows.
Postmake uses a simple Makefile-like syntax to define tasks and dependencies between them. Developers can write Postmake recipes which describe the commands required to build, test and deploy their software. Recipes act as scripts that can execute sequential commands, define inputs and outputs, handle errors etc.
Key features of Postmake include:
- Simple Makefile-like domain specific language to automate workflows
- Supports incremental builds based on file timestamps and hashes
- Parallel execution of independent tasks leveraging multiple cores
- Remote execution via SSH allowing deployment automation
- Plugins for integrating with unit test frameworks like JUnit and Postman
- Extendable via JavaScript for advanced workflows
- Easy integration with CI/CD pipelines
Postmake aims to provide a simple yet flexible open-source alternative to tools like Make, Ant, Gradle, Grunt, Gulp, Bazel etc. It can helps developers automate repetitive tasks, enables faster builds and deployments and also makes it easier to maintain complex software projects.