multi-compile is an Emacs extension allowing to easily work with several independant compilation commands. Instead of the traditional compile and recompile commands, you can define additional pairs of (re-)compilation commands to easily automate running multiple shell commands.

First install the required dependency: hydra. It is available from various ELPA repositories. Then:

1. get this repository:

   $ git clone https://github.com/ffevotte/multi-compile

2. instruct Emacs where to find the package by adding a snippet like this in your init file:

   (add-to-list 'load-path "/path/to/multi-compile")
   (require 'multi-compile)

Putting the following snippet in your init file:

(multi-compile check
  :command "make check"  ;; optional
  )

defines the following commands:

• M-xcheck: similar to compile, except that it has its own shell command and execution directory. Compilation results are put in a buffer named *check*.

• M-xrecheck: similar to recompile, except that it reuses the last compilation parameters from the buffer *check*.

• M-xcheck-dwim: when called without argument, call recheck. With a prefix argument, offer a choice between several compilation-related commands. This command is returned by multi-compile, so that you can bind it directly if you like, as in the examples below.

The following optional parameters can be provided:

• :command defines a default value for the shell command associated to the new compilation command.

A C++ developer might setup the following commands to automate the development process:

(global-set-key (kbd "<f5>") (multi-compile build))
(global-set-key (kbd "<f6>") (multi-compile check      :command "make check"))
(global-set-key (kbd "<f7>") (multi-compile install    :command "make install"))
(global-set-key (kbd "<f8>") (multi-compile build-doc  :command "make doc"))

If you make improvements to this code or have suggestions, please do not hesitate to fork the repository or submit bug reports on github. The repository's URL is:

https://github.com/ffevotte/multi-compile.git

Copyright (C) 2014-2015 François Févotte.

This program is free software: you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by the Free Software Foundation, either version 3 of the License, or (at your option) any later version.

This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the GNU General Public License for more details.

You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License along with this program. If not, see http://www.gnu.org/licenses/.