Question

I’ve raked through a lot of “make for Python” projects, but I can’t find any with the simplicity of a cake file. What I’m looking for is a Python equivalent that will let me:

1. Keep the build commands in a single file in my project root
2. Define each task as a simple function with a description that will automatically be displayed when the “make” file is run without arguments
3. Import my Python modules

I’m picturing something like this:

from pymake import task, main

@task('reset_tables', 'Drop and recreate all MySQL tables')
def reset_tables():
    # ...

@task('build_stylus', 'Build the stylus files to public/css/*')
def build_stylus():
    from myproject import stylus_builder
    # ...

@task('build_cscript', 'Build the coffee-script files to public/js/*')
def build_cscript():
    # ...

@task('build', 'Build everything buildable')
def build():
    build_cscript()
    build_stylus()

# etc...

# Function that parses command line args etc...
main()

I’ve searched and searched but found nothing like it. If it doesn’t exist, I will make it myself and probably answer this question with it.

Thanks for your help!

Answer 1

It’s not that hard to build a simple solution yourself:

import sys

tasks = {}
def task (f):
    tasks[f.__name__] = f
    return f

def showHelp ():
    print('Available tasks:')
    for name, task in tasks.items():
        print('  {0}: {1}'.format(name, task.__doc__))

def main ():
    if len(sys.argv) < 2 or sys.argv[1] not in tasks:
        showHelp()
        return

    print('Executing task {0}.'.format(sys.argv[1]))
    tasks[sys.argv[1]]()

And then a small sample:

from pymake import task, main

@task
def print_foo():
    '''Prints foo'''
    print('foo')

@task
def print_hello_world():
    '''Prints hello world'''
    print('Hello World!')

@task
def print_both():
    '''Prints both'''
    print_foo()
    print_hello_world()

if __name__ == '__main__':
    main()

And what it looks like when used:

> .\test.py
Available tasks:
  print_hello_world: Prints hello world
  print_foo: Prints foo
  print_both: Prints both
> .\test.py print_hello_world
Executing task print_hello_world.
Hello World!