Bazel
Bazel builds software from source code organized in a directory called a workspace. Source files in the workspace are organized in a nested hierarchy of packages, where each package is a directory that contains a set of related source files and one BUILD file. The BUILD file specifies what software outputs can be built from the source.
1.Introduce
1.1. Features
- High-level build language
- fast and reliable
- multi-platform
- large scales and extensible
1.2. workflow
-
Set up Bazel. Download and install Bazel.
-
Set up a project workspace, which is a directory where Bazel looks for build inputs and
BUILDfiles, and where it stores build outputs. -
Write a
BUILDfile, which tells Bazel what to build and how to build it.You write your
BUILDfile by declaring build targets using Starlark, a domain-specific language. (See example here.)A build target specifies a set of input artifacts that Bazel will build plus their dependencies, the build rule Bazel will use to build it, and options that configure the build rule.
A build rule specifies the build tools Bazel will use, such as compilers and linkers, and their configurations. Bazel ships with a number of build rules covering the most common artifact types in the supported languages on supported platforms.
-
Run Bazel from the command line. Bazel places your outputs within the workspace.
1.3. backend workflow
- Loads the
BUILDfiles relevant to the target. - Analyzes the inputs and their dependencies, applies the specified build rules, and produces an action graph.
- Executes the build actions on the inputs until the final build outputs are produced.
Since all previous build work is cached, Bazel can identify and reuse cached artifacts and only rebuild or retest what’s changed. To further enforce correctness, you can set up Bazel to run builds and tests hermetically through sandboxing, minimizing skew and maximizing reproducibility.
1.4. Download
sudo apt install g++ unzip zip
# Ubuntu 16.04 (LTS) uses OpenJDK 8 by default:
sudo apt-get install openjdk-8-jdk
# Ubuntu 18.04 (LTS) uses OpenJDK 11 by default:
sudo apt-get install openjdk-11-jdk
chmod +x bazel-<version>-installer-linux-x86_64.sh
./bazel-<version>-installer-linux-x86_64.sh --user
If you ran the Bazel installer with the
--userflag as above, the Bazel executable is installed in your$HOME/bindirectory. It’s a good idea to add this directory to your default paths, as follows:
export PATH="$PATH:$HOME/bin"
2. Example
2.1. Structure&SingleBuild
the CPP examples structure
examples
└── cpp-tutorial
├──stage1
│ ├── main
│ │ ├── BUILD
│ │ └── hello-world.cc
│ └── WORKSPACE
├──stage2
│ ├── main
│ │ ├── BUILD
│ │ ├── hello-world.cc
│ │ ├── hello-greet.cc
│ │ └── hello-greet.h
│ └── WORKSPACE
└──stage3
├── main
│ ├── BUILD
│ ├── hello-world.cc
│ ├── hello-greet.cc
│ └── hello-greet.h
├── lib
│ ├── BUILD
│ ├── hello-time.cc
│ └── hello-time.h
└── WORKSPACE
-
workspace: a directory that holds your project’s source files and Bazel’s build outputs. It also contains files that Bazel recognizes as special:
- The
WORKSPACEfile, which identifies the directory and its contents as a Bazel workspace and lives at the root of the project’s directory structure, - One or more
BUILDfiles, which tell Bazel how to build different parts of the project. (A directory within the workspace that contains aBUILDfile is a package. You will learn about packages later in this tutorial.)
- The
-
Build File:
cc_binary(
name = "hello-world",
srcs = ["hello-world.cc"],
)
In our example, the
hello-worldtarget instantiates Bazel’s built-incc_binaryrule. The rule tells Bazel to build a self-contained executable binary from thehello-world.ccsource file with no dependencies.
- **Build Project: **
bazel build //main:hello-world # in the stage1//
//main:part is the location of ourBUILDfile relative to the root of the workspace, andhello-worldis what we named that target in theBUILDfile
- Review dependency graph:
bazel query --notool_deps --noimplicit_deps "deps(//main:hello-world)" \
--output graph
to look for all dependencies for the target
//main:hello-world(excluding host and implicit dependencies) and format the output as a graph.
# view the graph locally by installing GraphViz and the xdot Dot Viewer:
sudo apt update && sudo apt install graphviz xdot
# generate and view the graph by piping the text output above straight to xdot:
xdot <(bazel query --notool_deps --noimplicit_deps "deps(//main:hello-world)" \
--output graph)

2.2. Multi-build
cc_library(
name = "hello-greet",
srcs = ["hello-greet.cc"],
hdrs = ["hello-greet.h"],
)
cc_binary(
name = "hello-world",
srcs = ["hello-world.cc"],
deps = [
":hello-greet",
],
)
he
depsattribute in thehello-worldtarget tells Bazel that thehello-greetlibrary is required to build thehello-worldbinary.
2.3. Multi-Package
Take a look at the lib/BUILD file:
cc_library(
name = "hello-time",
srcs = ["hello-time.cc"],
hdrs = ["hello-time.h"],
visibility = ["//main:__pkg__"],
)
And at the main/BUILD file:
cc_library(
name = "hello-greet",
srcs = ["hello-greet.cc"],
hdrs = ["hello-greet.h"],
)
cc_binary(
name = "hello-world",
srcs = ["hello-world.cc"],
deps = [
":hello-greet",
"//lib:hello-time",
],
)

//path//to/package: target-name
If the target is a rule target, then
path/to/packageis the path to the directory containing theBUILDfile, andtarget-nameis what you named the target in theBUILDfile (thenameattribute). If the target is a file target, thenpath/to/packageis the path to the root of the package, andtarget-nameis the name of the target file, including its full path.
3. Common rules
3.1. including multiple files in a target
cc_library(
name = "build-all-the-files",
srcs = glob(["*.cc"]),
hdrs = glob(["*.h"]),
)
3.2. Using transitive includes
If a file includes a header, then the file’s rule should depend on that header’s library. Conversely, only direct dependencies need to be specified as dependencies. For example, suppose
sandwich.hincludesbread.handbread.hincludesflour.h.sandwich.hdoesn’t includeflour.h(who wants flour in their sandwich?), so theBUILDfile would look like this:
cc_library(
name = "sandwich",
srcs = ["sandwich.cc"],
hdrs = ["sandwich.h"],
deps = [":bread"],
)
cc_library(
name = "bread",
srcs = ["bread.cc"],
hdrs = ["bread.h"],
deps = [":flour"],
)
cc_library(
name = "flour",
srcs = ["flour.cc"],
hdrs = ["flour.h"],
)
3.3. Adding including paths
└── my-project
├── legacy
│ └── some_lib
│ ├── BUILD
│ ├── include
│ │ └── some_lib.h
│ └── some_lib.cc
└── WORKSPACE
cc_library(
name = "some_lib",
srcs = ["some_lib.cc"],
hdrs = ["include/some_lib.h"],
copts = ["-Ilegacy/some_lib/include"],
)
copts 这个参数含义不太明白
3.4. Adding dependencies on precompiled libraries
cc_library(
name = "mylib",
srcs = ["mylib.so"],
hdrs = ["mylib.h"],
)
3.5. including external libraries
load("@bazel_tools//tools/build_defs/repo:http.bzl", "http_archive")
http_archive(
name = "gtest",
url = "https://github.com/google/googletest/archive/release-1.7.0.zip",
sha256 = "b58cb7547a28b2c718d1e38aee18a3659c9e3ff52440297e965f5edffe34b6d0",
build_file = "@//:gtest.BUILD",
)
cc_library(
name = "main",
srcs = glob(
["googletest-release-1.7.0/src/*.cc"],
exclude = ["googletest-release-1.7.0/src/gtest-all.cc"]
),
hdrs = glob([
"googletest-release-1.7.0/include/**/*.h",
"googletest-release-1.7.0/src/*.h"
]),
copts = [
"-Iexternal/gtest/googletest-release-1.7.0/include",
"-Iexternal/gtest/googletest-release-1.7.0"
],
linkopts = ["-pthread"],
visibility = ["//visibility:public"],
)
load("@bazel_tools//tools/build_defs/repo:http.bzl", "http_archive")
http_archive(
name = "gtest",
url = "https://github.com/google/googletest/archive/release-1.7.0.zip",
sha256 = "b58cb7547a28b2c718d1e38aee18a3659c9e3ff52440297e965f5edffe34b6d0",
build_file = "@//:gtest.BUILD",
strip_prefix = "googletest-release-1.7.0",
)
cc_library(
name = "main",
srcs = glob(
["src/*.cc"],
exclude = ["src/gtest-all.cc"]
),
hdrs = glob([
"include/**/*.h",
"src/*.h"
]),
copts = ["-Iexternal/gtest/include"],
linkopts = ["-pthread"],
visibility = ["//visibility:public"],
3.5.1 depending on other bazel projects
If you want to use targets from a second Bazel project, you can use
local_repository,git_repositoryorhttp_archiveto symlink it from the local filesystem, reference a git repository or download it (respectively).
local_repository(
name = "coworkers_project",
path = "/path/to/coworkers-project",
)
3.5.2.depending on non-bazel projects
Rules prefixed with
new_, e.g.,new_local_repository, allow you to create targets from projects that do not use Bazel.
new_local_repository(
name = "coworkers_project",
path = "/path/to/coworkers-project",
build_file = "coworker.BUILD",
)
3.6. Shadowing dependencies
workspace(name = "myproject")
local_repository(
name = "A",
path = "../A",
)
local_repository(
name = "B",
path = "../B",
)
A/WORKSPACE
workspace(name = "A")
load("@bazel_tools//tools/build_defs/repo:http.bzl", "http_archive")
http_archive(
name = "testrunner",
urls = ["https://github.com/testrunner/v1.zip"],
sha256 = "...",
)
B/WORKSPACE
workspace(name = "B")
load("@bazel_tools//tools/build_defs/repo:http.bzl", "http_archive")
http_archive(
name = "testrunner",
urls = ["https://github.com/testrunner/v2.zip"],
sha256 = "..."
)
the above confront verson differ problem which can be solved by follows:
workspace(name = "myproject")
load("@bazel_tools//tools/build_defs/repo:http.bzl", "http_archive")
http_archive(
name = "testrunner-v1",
urls = ["https://github.com/testrunner/v1.zip"],
sha256 = "..."
)
http_archive(
name = "testrunner-v2",
urls = ["https://github.com/testrunner/v2.zip"],
sha256 = "..."
)
local_repository(
name = "A",
path = "../A",
repo_mapping = {"@testrunner" : "@testrunner-v1"}
)
local_repository(
name = "B",
path = "../B",
repo_mapping = {"@testrunner" : "@testrunner-v2"}
)
3.7. Visibility
"//visibility:public": Anyone can use this target. (May not be combined with any other specification.)"//visibility:private": Only targets in this package can use this target. (May not be combined with any other specification.)"//foo/bar:__pkg__": Grants access to targets defined in//foo/bar(but not its subpackages). Here,__pkg__is a special piece of syntax representing all of the targets in a package."//foo/bar:__subpackages__": Grants access to targets defined in//foo/bar, or any of its direct or indirect subpackages. Again,__subpackages__is special syntax."//foo/bar:my_package_group": Grants access to all of the packages named by the given package group.- Package groups do not support the special
__pkg__and__subpackages__syntax. Within a package group,"//foo/bar"is equivalent to"//foo/bar:__pkg__"and"//foo/bar/..."is equivalent to"//foo/bar:__subpackages__".
- Package groups do not support the special
loadstatements are currently not subject to visibility. It is possible to load abzlfile anywhere in the workspace.