🔨 jmake++ — Simple C++ Build Tool

jmake++ is a lightweight, zero-dependency build system for C++ projects, written in C++. It replaces complex systems like Make and CMake for small to mid-size projects with a single JSON configuration file and intuitive CLI.

Version: 2.0.2 Platforms: Windows ✅ & Linux ✅ & MacOS ⚠️(needs to build from source, not tested) Dependencies: g++, nlohmann/json (bundled), filio (bundled), and C++17 standard library

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⚡ Features

• 📦 Easy project config via project.json
• 🔁 Wildcard-based include path expansion (./include/*)
• 🔧 Build targets: Executables (elf) and shared libraries (shared)
• 📁 Header installer: install .h/.hpp files into your project
• 🧼 clean command to delete build artifacts
• 🆙 Automatic version tracking on successful builds
• ✅ Cross-platform: single .exe for Windows; CLI-native on Linux
• 🚀 Installers(jmakepp_<version>_amd64.deb and jmakepp_<version>_amd64.msi) in the installers directory

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🚀 Getting Started

📥 Installation

Download the prebuilt binary for your platform from the repo page, or build from source:

git clone https://github.com/replit-user/jmakepp ./jmakepp
cd jmakepp
./jmakepp_linux build 2.0.2  # On Linux
# or
jmakepp_windows.exe build 2.0.2  # On Windows

Add the binary to your PATH for system-wide access using the provided .deb and .msi packages

🔧 Commands

jmakepp new <path>      # Create a new project in the given directory
jmakepp build <version> # Build the project and update version in project.json
jmakepp install <path>  # Install .h/.hpp files to ./include
jmakepp clean           # Remove the ./build directory
jmakepp version         # Show jmake++ version
jmakepp help            # Show available commands
jmakepp update          # update the script
jmakepp run             # build the program and run the binary

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🛠 Example Workflow

jmakepp new myproject
cd myproject
jmakepp build 1.1.0
./build/myproject-1.1.0

You'll see:

📦 Starting compilation
✅ Build successful -> ./build/myproject-1.1.0
🔄 Updated version to: 1.1.0

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📄 project.json Format

{
  "name": "example",
  "version": "1.0",
  "buildpath": "./build/",
  "includepaths": ["./include/*"],
  "srcpath": "./src/main.cpp",
  "type": "elf",
  "flags":"",
  "platforms":[
    "windows",
    "linux"
  ],
  "c":false,
  "override binary name":false,
  "binary name":""
}

Fields

Field	Type	Description
name	string	Name of the output binary
version	string	Semantic version string
buildpath	string	Output path for compiled binary
includepaths	array[string]	List of include directories (supports *)
srcpath	array[string]	Source file(s)
type	"elf" or "shared"	Build target: executable or shared lib
flags	string or list of strings	additional flags to add to g++
platforms	list of strings, either windows or linux	the platofrms to compile with
override binary name	boolean	wheather or not to override the default binary naming
binary name	string	if obverriding the binary name, tha binary name to use

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📁 Directory Layout (after jmakepp new)

myproject/
├── project.json
├── include/
├── src/
│   └── main.cpp
└── build/           # Generated after build

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🧰 Installing Headers

Install individual headers or full directories:

jmakepp install path/to/header.hpp
jmakepp install include/

Copies valid .h or .hpp files to your project's ./include/.

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🧼 Clean Build Artifacts

jmakepp clean

Removes the build directory completely.

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🧱 Built With

• nlohmann/json for JSON parsing

• filio for cleaner I/O abstraction (optional)

• C++17 and <filesystem> for cross-platform FS operations

• jmakepp itself!

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📦 Example Build Output

g++ -std=c++17 -O2 -o ./build/myproject-1.0 ./src/main.cpp -I./include

For shared libraries:

g++ -std=c++17 -O2 -o ./build/libmyproject-1.0.so ./src/main.cpp -shared -fPIC -I./include

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📌 Latest Changes (v2.0.2)

introduced the run command

❗ Known Limitations

• macOS support is not currently maintained (C) support was added but is not actively tested
• Only tested on Linux (x86_64) and windows x86_64

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🧑‍💻 Author

Made by replit-user

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📄 License

Responsible Sharing License do most things freely and give credit if republishing

🔖 Version History

• 2.0.2 - add run command
• 2.0.1 - a small bugfix
• 2.0.0 - added multithreading and multiple soirce files in srcpath
• 1.9.0 - added a binary name override option in project.json and remove installer.ps1/installer.sh
• 1.8.8 - Previous release
• 1.8.7 - Fixed update mechanism
• 1.8.6 - Added C language support and experimental macOS support