A utility that helps doing C++ compilation-related measurements. It detects the compilers available on the system and compiles the code using them. It outputs the results in a JSON document.

It is tested on Ubuntu.

The utility is implemented in C++. It can be compiled using the build.sh script.

The mbuild binary detects compilers installed on the system and can compile one or more source files using them. The output is a JSON document, containing all the measurement results.

The utility detect the compilers the following way:

• It checks the entries of the PATH environment variable.
• It checks the following directories as well: /bin, /usr/bin, /usr/local/bin, $HOME/bin

It checks the following binaries in the above directories:

• clang*, templight*: checks if they are Clang compilers
• gcc*, g++*: check is they are GCC compilers

To see which compilers were found by the utility, run mbuil --compilers

The files to compile can be provided as positional arguments. More files can be provided and all of them will be measured using all compilers. For example: mbuild test.cpp other_test.cpp

The output format is a JSON document. It is displayed on standard output and can be redirected. The JSON document contains a list of objects. Each object represents one measurement. It has the following fields:

• filename: the name of the source file. For example: "test.cpp"
• compiler name: the name of the compiler measured. For example: "gcc"
• compiler version: the version of the compiler. For example: "5.3.0"
• optimisation: the optimisation level used for the compilation. It is a string, its values are compiler-dependent.
• compiles: was the compilation successful? For example: true.
• stdout: the standard output of the compiler.
• stderr: the standard error of the compiler.
• user_time: the number of seconds (user time output of the time command), the compilation took. For example: 1.234. Note that this is present for successful compilations only.
• memory: the maximum memory consumption of the compiler (in Kb). For example: 12345. Note that this is present for successful compilations only.
• template instantiations: the number of template instantiations. For example: 13. Note that this is present only if the compiler has Templight support. Note that by installing Metashell on your system you get Templight as well (which MBuild can find and use).

Metashell is published under the GNU General Public License, version 3.