tmk – A Multi-Site, Multi-Platform System for Software Development

tmk is a tool that embeds the functionality of make in the scripting language Tcl in a very simple and convenient way. Furthermore, tmk allows higher levels of abstraction via modules and a flexible configuration framework. In addition to using tmk simply as a replacement for make, the users can create projects with global methods, objects, and options, and extend or modify the globally defined tasks using per-directory control files similar to the traditional Makefile concept. We give a brief overview of tmk’s core concepts, such as target and dependency definition, exception handling, and parameterization of targets and modules. Furthermore, we show some examples of how to use tmk’s configuration system for multi-platform software development and projects shared by multiple sites.