nimmake

A lightweight C++ project manager written in Nim.

nimmake is a lightweight build system focused on making C++ projects simple to configure and build. It automatically discovers source files, registers include directories, downloads GitHub dependencies, and generates compile_commands.json for editor integration.

Created and maintained by Neirra.

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Features

• Simple project initialization
• Automatic source file discovery
• Wildcard source support (src/*.cpp)
• Automatic include directory registration
• Automatic object caching (incremental compilation)
• Automatic compile_commands.json generation
• GitHub package support
• Configurable directory and file skipping
• Minimal TOML configuration
• MinGW support

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Requirements

Currently supported:

• Windows
• x64 (64-bit)
• MinGW (MSYS2 recommended)

Additional compilers and platforms are planned.

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Installation

Clone the repository.

git clone https://github.com/Minster23/nimmake.git
cd nimmake
nimble build

Add the directory containing nimmake.exe to your system PATH.

Verify the installation:

nimmake help

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Quick Start

Create a project.

nimmake init

Build.

nimmake build

Run.

nimmake run

Check parsed configuration.

nimmake check

Show help.

nimmake help

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Commands

Command	Description
init	Generate config.toml
build	Build the project
run	Execute the generated application
check	Display parsed project configuration
help	Show command usage

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Configuration

Projects are configured using a single config.toml.

Project

[project]
name = "MyProject"
desc = "Example project"
version = "c++20"

files = [
    "src/*.cpp"
]

compiler = "mingw"

Project Fields

Field	Description
name	Project name
desc	Project description
version	C++ standard (c++11 ... c++23)
files	Source files or wildcard patterns
compiler	Compiler backend

Examples:

files = [
    "src/main.cpp"
]

files = [
    "src/*.cpp"
]

---

Library

[library]

auto_regist = true
onlyMain = true

packages = [
    "ocornut/imgui",
    "fmtlib/fmt"
]

included = [
    "thirdparty/include"
]

linkdir = [
    "thirdparty/lib"
]

linkname = [
    "glfw3",
    "opengl32"
]

skipDir = [
    ".git",
    ".github",
    "docs",
    "examples",
    "misc",
    "tests"
]

skipFile = [
    "imgui_impl_dx9.cpp",
    "imgui_impl_dx10.cpp",
    "imgui_impl_dx11.cpp",
    "imgui_impl_dx12.cpp"
]

Library Fields

Field	Description
auto_regist	Automatically discover source files and include directories from packages
onlyMain	Only compile executable entry files listed in project.files
packages	GitHub repositories downloaded into ext/
included	Additional include directories
linkdir	Additional library search directories
linkname	Libraries passed to the linker
skipDir	Directories ignored during automatic scanning
skipFile	Files ignored during automatic scanning

---

Custom

[costum]

macro = ""
build = "binary"
arc = 64
compile_command = true

Custom Fields

Field	Description
macro	Additional compiler flags
build	Build type
arc	Target architecture
compile_command	Generate compile_commands.json

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Example

MyProject/
├── src/
│   ├── main.cpp
│   ├── app.cpp
│   └── app.h
├── ext/
├── out/
├── config.toml
└── nimmake.exe

Build:

nimmake build

Run:

nimmake run

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Incremental Compilation

nimmake automatically checks timestamps of object files.

Only modified source files are recompiled.

Example:

src/main.cpp  ---> out/object/main.o
src/app.cpp   ---> out/object/app.o

If only app.cpp changes:

Compile:
✓ app.cpp

Skip:
✓ main.cpp

The final executable is then linked using all object files.

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GitHub Packages

Packages are downloaded automatically into the ext/ directory.

packages = [
    "ocornut/imgui",
    "glfw/glfw"
]

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Roadmap

• Parallel compilation
• MSVC support
• Clang support
• Linux support
• macOS support
• Static library target
• Shared library target
• Package manager
• Plugin system
• Better dependency resolution

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Philosophy

nimmake is designed around one idea:

C++ projects should be easy to build.

Instead of maintaining large build scripts, developers describe their project using a small TOML file while nimmake handles source discovery, dependency registration, incremental compilation, and editor integration automatically.

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Credits

• Code — Neirra
• Documentation — ChatGPT