Build Automation

Build automation is the process of automating the creation of software builds and the packaging of those builds into deployable artifacts. The goal of build automation is to streamline and simplify the build process, allowing developers to focus on writing code rather than manually building and packaging their applications.

Some common tools used for build automation include Maven, Gradle, Make, Ant, Bazel, and Gulp. These tools allow developers to define build tasks and dependencies in a build file. For example, a build file might specify commands for compiling source code into binaries, running unit tests, packaging binaries into distributable formats like JAR files, and pushing packages to a repository. Build automation tools then execute these tasks automatically whenever a new build is triggered. This saves developers time and effort compared to manually running build steps. Build automation is a key practice in continuous integration and continuous delivery workflows, enabling teams to reliably and efficiently build, test, and release software at scale. For instance, build tools can integrate with version control systems to kick off new builds when code changes are checked in. Overall, build automation brings consistency, reliability, and automation to the software build process.