BuildStream 2.0 is here, just in time for the holidays!

We are happy to see BuildStream 2.0 is finally here - with improved performance, remote execution support, and a host of new features.

BuildStream is a powerful software integration tool that allows developers to automate the integration of software components including operating systems, and to streamline the software development and production process. Some key capabilities of BuildStream include:

• Defining software stacks in a declarative format: BuildStream allows users to define the steps required to build and integrate software components, including fetching source code and building dependencies.
• Integrating with version control systems: BuildStream can be configured to fetch source code from popular source code management solutions such as GitLab, GitHub, BitBucket as well as a range of non-git technologies
• Supporting a wide range of build technologies: BuildStream supports a wide range of technologies, including key programming languages like C, C++, Python, Rust and Java, as well as many build tools including Make, CMake, Meson, distutils, pip and others
• Ability to create outputs in a range of formats: e.g. debian packages, flatpak runtimes, sysroots, system images, for multiple platforms and chipsets.
• Flexible architecture: BuildStream is designed to be flexible and extensible, allowing users to customize their build and integration processes to meet their specific needs and tooling.
• Enabling fast and reliable software delivery: By extensibly use of sandboxing techniques and by its capability to distribute the build, BuildStream helps teams deliver high-quality software faster.

Buildstream 2.0.0

BuildStream 2.0.0 is a major update, offering a range of new features and improvements. Some key updates include:

• Remote Execution: BuildStream now supports building remotely using the Remote Execution API, which is a standard protocol used by various tools and services such as Bazel, BuildGrid and Buildbarn.
• Load time performance: The loading code paths have been overhauled to improve performance and responsiveness on the command line, particularly for large projects.
• Artifact and Source caching: BuildStream now uses the Content Addressable Storage (CAS) and Remote Asset services as part of the Remote Execution API to store artifacts and sources in remote caches, and also now caches source code in CAS servers.
• BuildBox Sandboxing: BuildStream now uses the BuildBox abstraction for its sandboxing implementation, with a fuse filesystem to expose files in CAS directly to the containerized build environment on Linux platforms.
• Cache Key Stability: BuildStream 2 promises to never change artifact cache keys in future releases, helping to reduce unnecessary rebuilds and allowing for validation of artifacts when upgrading.
• Caching failed builds: It is now possible to preserve and share the state of a failed build artifact for local debugging.
• YAML Format Enhancements: A variety of enhancements have been made to the YAML format, including variable expansion, automatic variables, and the ability to override element definitions in subprojects.
• Improved error messages: BuildStream 2 features improved error messages to help users more easily understand and fix issues.
• The licence has changed to Apache v2, and BuildStream is now an Apache Software Foundation project

Links

• Buildstream webpage
• Buildstream git repository
• Buildtream documentation