GENie

GENie - Project generator tool

What is it?

GENie (pronounced as Jenny) is project generator tool. It automagically generates project from Lua script, making applying the same settings for multiple projects easy.

Supported project generators:

• GNU Makefile
• JSON Compilation Database
• Ninja (experimental)
• Visual Studio 2010, 2012, 2013, 2015, 2017, 2019, 2022, 2026
• XCode

Download (stable)

version 1196 (commit 5ae13c9940b4d5a62b1ea086ffcdacc2ddc16b50)

Linux:
https://github.com/bkaradzic/bx/raw/master/tools/bin/linux/genie

OSX:
https://github.com/bkaradzic/bx/raw/master/tools/bin/darwin/genie

Windows:
https://github.com/bkaradzic/bx/raw/master/tools/bin/windows/genie.exe

Building (dev)

$ git clone https://github.com/bkaradzic/genie
$ cd genie
$ make

Documentation

Scripting Reference

Introduction to GENie - CppCon 2016

History

Initial version of GENie is fork of Premake 4.4 beta 5, and there is no intention to keep it compatible with it.

Changelog (since fork)

• Added vs2013 support.
• Added hash UUID support. os.uuid(<string>) should produce consistent UUID.
• Added search for default script. Default script name is changed to genie.lua (solution.lua and premake4.lua are also allowed), and it can be located in scripts directory.
• Updated Lua from 5.1.4 to 5.3.0.
• Disabled SmallerTypeCheck VS option when ExtraWarnings is set (need to move it into separate option).
• New versioning scheme based on revision number from git.
• Added startproject "<project name>" to set default project in VS.
• Removed NoMinimalRebuild and added reversed logic to EnableMinimalRebuild.
• Added NoMultiProcessorCompilation flag to disable multiprocessor compilation in MSVC.
• Added ability to configure Visual Studio toolset from GENie script.
• Added UnsignedChar flag to force char to be unsigned.
• Removed vs2002, vs2003, vs2005, Solaris, and Haiku support.
• Allow source files in the same project to have the same name. Added SingleOutputDir flag to use single output directory (original behaviour).
• Added WinRT support (Windows Phone 8.1, Windows Store, Universal Apps).
• Added removeflags, removelinks.
• Added vs2015 support.
• Added targetsubdir.
• Added support for solution folders group.
• Added options section (and ForceCpp to enforce C++ compile even if extension is for C files)
• Added msgcompile, msgresource, msglinking and msgarchiving as overrides for make messages.
• Added messageskip list to disable some of compiler messages.
• Added buildoptions_c, buildoptions_cpp, buildoptions_objc, buildoptions_objcpp, buildoptions_asm, buildoptions_swift for configuring language specific build options.
• Split functionality of excludes in removefiles and excludes. With VS excludes will exclude files from build but files will be added to project file. removefiles removes files completely from project.
• Added support for generating PS4/Orbis projects.
• Fixed PCH race when using concurrent Makefile build.
• Added Green Hills Software compiler support.
• Added edit & continue support for 64-bit builds in vs2013 upwards.
• Added windowstargetplatformversion to specify VS Windows target version.
• Added NoWinRT flag to disable WinRT CX builds.
• Added NoBufferSecurityCheck flag to disable security checks in VS.
• Added nopch file list to exclude files from using PCH.
• Added EnableAVX and EnableAVX2 flags to enable enhanced instruction set.
• Added FASTBuild (.bff) project generator.
• Added Vala language support.
• Added MASM support for Visual Studio projects.
• Added userincludedirs for include header with angle brackets and quotes search path control.
• Detect when generated project files are not changing, and skip writing over existing project files.
• Added Ninja project generator.
• Added ability to specify MSVC “Old Style” debug info format with C7DebugInfo.
• Added some support for per-configuration files lists.
• Removed clean action.
• Added support for QtCreator via Qbs build tool.
• Added .natvis file type support for Visual Studio.
• Added Swift language support for make and ninja build generators.
• Removed CodeBlocks and CodeLite support.
• Added vs2017 support.
• Removed vs2008 support.
• Added removeplatforms that removes VS build target platforms.
• Added PedanticWarnings flag.
• Added ObjcARC flag to enable automatic reference counting for Objective-C(++).
• Added iostargetplatformversion, macostargetplatformversion, and tvostargetplatformversion to specify XCode OS target version.
• Removed the xcode3, and xcode4 actions.
• Added the xcode8, xcode9, xcode10, xcode11 and xcode14 actions.
• Added systemincludedirs that are always searched after directories added using includedirs.
• Added NoRuntimeChecks flag to disable Basic Runtime Checks in non-optimized Visual Studio builds.
• Added support for Nintendo Switch projects.
• Added flags for selecting C++ standard: Cpp11, Cpp14, Cpp17, Cpp20 and CppLatest.
• Added xcodeprojectopts and xcodetargetopts.
• Added vs2019 support.
• Added UnitySupport flag to enable Unity (Jumbo) builds in vs2019
• Added the jcdb action for generating a JSON compilation database.
• Added support for generating Switch/NX32 Switch/NX64 projects.
• Removed FASTBuild.
• Removed Qbs support.
• Added vs2022 support.
• Added xcode15 action with visionOS support.
• Added vs2026 support.

zidar - GENie build system scripts

zidar is a set of build system scripts and related tools, built around GENie project generator tool.

https://github.com/RudjiGames/zidar

Debugging GENie scripts

It is possible to debug build scripts using ZeroBrane Studio. You must compile GENie in debug mode

$ make config=debug

This ensures the core lua scripts are loaded from disk rather than compiled into the GENie binary. Create a file named debug.lua as a sibling to your main genie.lua script with the following content:

local zb_path = <path to ZeroBraneStudio>
local cpaths = {
    string.format("%s/bin/lib?.dylib;%s/bin/clibs53/?.dylib;", zb_path, zb_path),
    package.cpath,
}
package.cpath = table.concat(cpaths, ';')

local paths = {
    string.format('%s/lualibs/?.lua;%s/lualibs/?/?.lua', zb_path, zb_path),
    string.format('%s/lualibs/?/init.lua;%s/lualibs/?/?/?.lua', zb_path, zb_path),
    string.format('%s/lualibs/?/?/init.lua', zb),
    package.path,
}
package.path = table.concat(paths, ';')

require('mobdebug').start()

NOTE: update zb_path to refer to the root of your ZeroBrane Studio install. For reference, you should find lualibs in you zb_path folder

To debug, make sure ZBS is listening for debug connections and add dofile("debug.lua") to genie.lua

Who is using it?

https://github.com/bkaradzic/bgfx bgfx - Cross-platform, graphics API agnostic, “Bring Your Own Engine/Framework” style rendering library.

https://github.com/Psybrus/Psybrus Psybrus Engine & Toolchain

https://github.com/dariomanesku/cmftstudio cmftStudio - cubemap filtering tool

https://github.com/mamedev/mame MAME - Multiple Arcade Machine Emulator

http://sol.gfxile.net/soloud SoLoud is an easy to use, free, portable c/c++ audio engine for games.

https://github.com/andr3wmac/Torque6 Torque 6 is an MIT licensed 3D engine loosely based on Torque2D. Being neither Torque2D or Torque3D it is the 6th derivative of the original Torque Engine.

https://milostosic.github.io/MTuner MTuner is a memory profiler and memory leak finder for Windows, PS4, PS3.

Developer Crackshell used GENie for development of games Heroes of Hammerwatch, and Serious Sam’s Bogus Detour.

License

GENie
Copyright (c) 2014-2018 Branimir Karadžić, Neil Richardson, Mike Popoloski,
Drew Solomon, Ted de Munnik, Miodrag Milanović, Brett Vickers, Bill Freist,
Terry Hendrix II, Ryan Juckett, Andrew Johnson, Johan Sköld,
Alastair Murray, Patrick Munns, Jan-Eric Duden, Phil Stevens, Stuart Carnie,
Nikolay Aleksiev, Jon Olson, Mike Fitzgerald, Anders Stenberg, Violets,
Hugo Amnov, Christian Helmich.
All rights reserved.

https://github.com/bkaradzic/genie

Redistribution and use in source and binary forms, with or without modification,
are permitted provided that the following conditions are met:

1. Redistributions of source code must retain the above copyright notice,
	this list of conditions and the following disclaimer.

2. Redistributions in binary form must reproduce the above copyright notice,
	this list of conditions and the following disclaimer in the documentation
	and/or other materials provided with the distribution.

3. Neither the name of the GENie nor the names of its contributors may be 
	used to endorse or promote products derived from this software without
	specific prior written permission.

THIS SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED BY THE COPYRIGHT HOLDERS AND CONTRIBUTORS "AS IS" AND
ANY EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE IMPLIED
WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE ARE 
DISCLAIMED. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE COPYRIGHT HOLDER OR CONTRIBUTORS BE LIABLE
FOR ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, EXEMPLARY, OR CONSEQUENTIAL
DAMAGES (INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, PROCUREMENT OF SUBSTITUTE GOODS OR
SERVICES; LOSS OF USE, DATA, OR PROFITS; OR BUSINESS INTERRUPTION) HOWEVER
CAUSED AND ON ANY THEORY OF LIABILITY, WHETHER IN CONTRACT, STRICT LIABILITY,
OR TORT (INCLUDING NEGLIGENCE OR OTHERWISE) ARISING IN ANY WAY OUT OF THE USE
OF THIS SOFTWARE, EVEN IF ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGE.