Glossary

buildscript – A buildscript is a small shell script, whose name ends in ‘.fix’. Each buildscript is responsible for producing one target, and declaring its dependencies. The target as always called the same as the buildscript, but without the ‘.fix’ ending.

child process – Whenever a buildscript invoke fix, a child process is created. A fix child processe inherit information from the mother process through a bunch of environment variables with names all beginning with $FIX_*.

dependency – A buildscript may declare any number of dependencies for its target (the buildscript itself always considered a dependency of its own target, too). If a dependency change then all targets depends on it will be considered dirty, until they are rebuilt.

dirty – A state of unupdatedness in a target or dependency. If target is “dirty,” then it means that content of that target file disagrees with what fix thinks it should be, and the file will be rebuilt next time fix processes that target.

mother process – This is the process started by the user. The B in turn, spawn off child processes (one for each buildscript being run). The mother process is the only process for which $FIX_PARENT is not set. (In the ideal case, where the entire build tree is already up-to-date, the mother process is the only process started.)

parent – The opposite of a dependency. If target A depends on B, then B is the dependency of A, and A is the parent of B.

target – A target (or target file), is a file generated by a buildscript. A target can be a dependency or a parent (or both) of another target. A target always depend on their buildscript.