DSSS

DSSS, the D Shared Software System, builds upon bud (AKA build) and intends to create a standardized system for building, installing, configuring, acquiring and using D software. One notable component of it is its net module, which provides an analogue to Perl's CPAN or Ruby's Gems for the D programming language.

DSSS 0.10 has been released, and is available from http://www.dsource.org/projects/dsss/browser/downloads/0.10

There is a simple README on using DSSS at http://www.dsource.org/projects/dsss/browser/trunk/docs/README.use

SVN: http://svn.dsource.org/projects/dsss/trunk

DSSS was written by Gregor Richards.

Overview

The D Shared Software System

DSSS, the D Shared Software System, is a tool to ease the building, installation, configuration and acquisition of D software.

Building

There are plenty of tools for building D software. There's bud (previously build), upon which DSSS is based, the antiquated make, and a plethora of other tools capable of building D software. DSSS intends to be more generally useful than any of them.

• DSSS eliminates the need to keep lists of source files, figuring them all out by imports in source. It will even link in the proper libraries automatically.
• DSSS can transparently build libraries from any D package.
• DSSS automatically generates .di (D import) files for libraries which cause code using the library to link it in automatically.
• Since DSSS uses bud, DSSS has all of bud's features as well.
• DSSS can automatically choose names for libraries generated from D packages which will not conflict with libraries from other sources, or incompatible compilers. So you do not need to concern yourself with library names.

Installation

As compared to building software, there are few tools capable of installing D software well.

• DSSS maintains a centralized repository of installed software, such that you can use it in your software trivially. .di files and library files are all managed by DSSS, as part of its effort to make imports map to library files automatically.
• DSSS keeps track of all of the software that has been installed through DSSS, so any of it can be uninstalled easily.

Configuration

DSSS' build configuration file (dsss.conf) allows full use of version statements from D. So, you can fine-tune your software to build precisely what is necessary for the host system.

Acquisition

In the spirit of Perl's CPAN or Ruby's Gems, DSSS has a central repository of sources for D software. It maintains a list of software packages available, where they can be acquired, and what packages/modules they provide. Because it maintains a list of packages and modules, dependencies for a tool can be installed as easily as:

$ dsss net deps

DSSS will then trace all of the software's D dependencies and install them. This feature can of course also be used to install arbitrary software, such as:

$ dsss net install mango

Upon either of these commands, DSSS will download the software from its upstream source, compile it, and install it.

More Information

DSSS is available from http://www.dsource.org/projects/dsss . It is FOSS (Free/Open Source Software) under a very permissive license. Its development code base is maintained in subversion and can be checked out from the following URL: http://svn.dsource.org/projects/dsss/trunk