# Introduction

Have you ever wondered, if you want to compile a C++ program, why you always
need to learn another language to make it build properly with dependency
tracking and so on.

Many good build-systems exists which all have their strengths and weeknesses
autotools, cmake, meson to name a few.

`cppbuild` tries to make it possible to use all the cool features of the above
in a tool only using C++ (through the compiler).

## Getting Started: 3 Simple Steps

Step 1: Create a build configuration, in C++

A really simple example ('hello_config.cc'):
```c++
#include "libcppbuild.h"

namespace
{
BuildConfigurations helloConfigs()
{
	return
	{
		{
			.target = "hello",
			.sources = {
				"hello.cc",
			},
			.cxxflags = {
				"-Wall",
				"-std=c++17",
			}
		},
	};
}

REG(helloConfigs);
}
```

Step 2: Bootstrap the system by compiling your build configuration along with
the libcppbuild.a static library:
```sh
g++ -std=c++17 hello_config.cc -pthread libcppbuild.a -o cppbuild
```

Step 3: Run cppbuild to build you application:

```sh
./cppbuild
```

Any consecutive changes to the build configuration or any of the sources will
automagically trigger a rebuild of all (and only) affected sources the next time
cppbuild is executed.