Paul Krill
Editor at Large

Google Bazel builds and tests Bazel 1.0

news
Oct 22, 20192 mins

Open source build tool brings fast incremental builds to multiple languages, multiple platforms, and large code bases

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Google’s Bazel build tool, an open source system supporting a variety of languages and platforms, including the Angular web framework and TensorFlow machine learning library, has reached version 1.0 status.

Bazel is positioned to offer faster build speeds, with builds that also are correct and scalable. The tool leverages a uniform extension language, Starlark, formerly known as Skylark, for defining builds.

Key features in Bazel 1.0 include:

  • Capabilities for Android, Angular, C++, and Java, including end-to-end support for remote execution and caching as well as support for standard package managers and third-party dependencies.
  • Semantic versioning, in which all Bazel 1.x releases will be backward compatible with Bazel 1.0. There will be a window of at least three months between breaking releases, with minor releases published monthly.
  • Long-term support, with the Bazel team offering critical bug fixes.

Bazel allows developers to build and test for multiple platforms and a wide range of languages. MacOS, Linux, and Windows are all supported. Key to Bazel is that it only rebuilds what is necessary. Fast, incremental builds are enabled by advanced local and distributed caching, optimized dependency analysis, and parallel execution. Codebases of any size can be accommodated, in multiple repos or a single, large repo.

How to get started with Bazel

Instructions on ramping up with Bazel can be found on the project website.

Paul Krill

Paul Krill is editor at large at InfoWorld. Paul has been covering computer technology as a news and feature reporter for more than 35 years, including 30 years at InfoWorld. He has specialized in coverage of software development tools and technologies since the 1990s, and he continues to lead InfoWorld’s news coverage of software development platforms including Java and .NET and programming languages including JavaScript, TypeScript, PHP, Python, Ruby, Rust, and Go. Long trusted as a reporter who prioritizes accuracy, integrity, and the best interests of readers, Paul is sought out by technology companies and industry organizations who want to reach InfoWorld’s audience of software developers and other information technology professionals. Paul has won a “Best Technology News Coverage” award from IDG.

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