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                                [Perforce]

             The Fast Software Configuration Management System

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                                         Jam - Make(1) Redux

   Home              Jam/MR is a make(1) replacement that makes building simple
                     things simple and building complicated things manageable. It
   Corporate         runs portably across UNIX, VMS, NT, OS/2, and Macintosh MPW.
   Products
                     [ If you're looking for the commercial product JAM, try the
   Documentation     JYACC home page. ]
   Software
                     Features

                        * Jam/MR is a make(1) replacement that makes building
                          simple things simple and building complicated things
                          manageable.
                        * Jam/MR's language is expressive, making Jamfiles (c.f.
                          Makefiles) compact. Here's a sample:

                              Main smail : main.c map.c resolve.c deliver.c
                                           misc.c parser.y alias.c pw.c headers.c
                                           scanner.l getpath.c str.c ;

                          This builds "smail" from a dozen source files. Jam/MR
                          handles header file dependencies automatically and
                          on-the-fly.
                        * Jam/MR is very portable: it runs on UNIX, VMS, NT,
                          OS/2, and Macintosh MPW. Most Jamfiles themselves are
                          portable, like the sample above.
                        * Jam/MR is unintrusive: it is small, it has negligible
                          CPU overhead, and it doesn't create any of its own
                          funny files (c.f. Odin, nmake, SunOS make).
                        * Jam/MR can build large projects spread across many
                          directories in one pass, without recursing, tracking
                          the relationships among all files. See the accompanying
                          paper. On UNIX and NT, jam can do this with multiple,
                          concurrent processes.
                        * Jam/MR isn't under the blinkin GNU copyright, so you
                          can incorporate it into commercial products.

                     Getting the Source

                     Jam/MR runs on many platforms, and is available in a source
                     code ball:

                        * Individual files are in jam-2.2 (530k).
                        * The gzipped ball is jam-2.2.tar.gz (130k).

                     Information Guide

                     Some "white papers" on jam/MR:

                        * The UNIX Application Development Symposium paper on jam
                          - a somewhat dated overview.
                        * Constructing a Large Product with Jam - an experience
                          report from SCM7.

                     Specific documentation; these are included with the
                     distribution:

                        * Jam.html - Jam man page - a terse description.
                        * Jambase.html - Reference for the rule boilerplate file.
                        * Jamfile.html - Easy reading on creating a Jamfile and
                          using jam.
                        * Jamlang.html - Jam language description.
                        * RELNOTES - Release 2.2 release notes.
                        * Porting - Notes on porting jam to wildcat platforms.
                        * README - installation instructions.
                        * jam.c - Contains jam's main() as well as an
                          introduction to the code, for serious hackers.

                     Join the Jamming mailing list!

                     A mailing list has been created for users to discuss jam/MR.
                     To join this group, send mail to listserv@perforce.com with
                     the following in the body of the message:

                             subscribe jamming yourname

                     You can also browse the jamming mailing list archive.

                     Comments to the author!

                     November, 1993 - release 1.0
                     March, 1995 - release 2.0
                     February, 1996 - release 2.1
                     November, 1997 - release 2.2

                     /+\
                     +\      Copyright 1993, 1997 Christopher Seiwald.
                     \+/

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Copyright 1997 Perforce Software.
Comments to info@perforce.com.
Last updated: December 3, 1997