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Build automation is the act of scripting or automating the process of compiling computer source code into binary code. This automated build is in contrast to a manual build process where a person has to perform multiple, often tedious and error prone tasks. It involves automating a wide variety of tasks that a software developer will do in their day-to-day activities including things like packaging binary code, running tests and deployment to production systems. The goal of this automation is to create a one-step process for turning source code into a working system. This is done to save time and to reduce errors.

• Commanded automation such as a user running a script on the command line
• Scheduled automation such as a continuous integration server running a nightly build
• Triggered automation such as a continuous integration server running a build on every commit to a version control system.

• Keep the build file at the root of the project
• Use consistent style and conventions
• Don't Repeat Yourself (DRY)
• Provide good help
• Manage dependencies properly
• Use per-user properties to allow people to override defaults such as database logins or directory locations
• Keep the build self-contained
• Keep it all in source control

• make, a classical Unix build tool
  • dmake [1] (distributed make), which is used in the build process for some Sun Microsystems software, including OpenOffice.org and Solaris.
  • Makepp [2] A build tool written in Perl, which is almost completely compatible with the original make, and offers a couple of advanced features: greatly improved handling of builds that involve multiple makefiles (recursive make is no longer necessary); automatic scanning for include files; rebuilds triggered if build command changes; checksum-based signature methods for reliable builds; extensibility through perl (within your makefile); repositories (automatically importing files from another tree).
  • Mk - developed originally for Version 10 Unix and Plan 9, said to have "improved upon make by removing all the vowels from the name", and introducing a completely new syntax that many consider to be easier to read and more powerful. It has been ported to Unix as part of plan9port.
  • Module::Build [3], which is a Perl module for the building and installation of other Perl modules. It improves upon the existing ExtUtils::MakeMaker module, which actually uses make to do the building.
  • Jam, which is a generally enhanced, ground-up tool which is similar to make.
  • nmake -- Bell Labs' nmake overcomes many limitations inherent in make, providing fully integrated support for viewpathing, dynamic dependency management, and state based execution. Forked into two versions after the AT&T trivestiture, a research version from AT&T Labs and a supported Alcatel-Lucent Bell Labs version.
  • Speedy Make [4] XML based make utility, very easy to write.
  • Openmake [5], a commercial enterprise build management tool
  • Rake, a Ruby-based build tool.
  • MPW Make -- Developed for Mac OS Classic and loosely similar to but not compatible with Unix make; it was designed with somewhat more complicated dependency syntax to allow for resource files. Mac OS X comes with both GNU make and BSD make. Available as part of the Macintosh Programmer's Workshop as a free, unsupported download from Apple.

• Ant, which is popular for Java development and uses an XML file format.
  • NAnt, a tool similar to ant for the .NET framework
  • want, an Ant-like XML-based tool for building programs, written in Delphi
• CMake, a tool that generates files for the native build environment, such as makefiles for Unix or Workspace files for Visual Studio.
• OMake [6], is an open source fully scriptable portable build tool with a custom scripting language built on top of Make-like syntax, and integrated functionality similar to autoconf/automake.
• MSBuild, the Microsoft Build Engine
• GNU Build Tools, a collection of tools for portable builds
• cook, a very powerful tool with a C like syntax.
• Apache Maven, a Java tool for management project and automated software build.
• CABIE Continuous Automated Build and Integration Environment, Open Source, written in Perl, supports CVS, Perforce and Subversion. Features, pre, post, postpost and onfail triggers. MySQL collector. Commandline and WEB interface. Runs as a daemon on Unix systems, and a service on Windows.
• PerlBuildSystem [7] - Open Source - A Make replacement written in Perl featuring hierarchical builds, dependency graph, node triggers, Perl syntax for PBSfiles, shell or Perl build actions.
• SCons, which is based around the Python programming language, and integrates a broader set of features than make, with integrated functionality similar to autoconf/automake. It is descended from a Perl build driver called Cons.
• A-A-P, a Python-based build tool.
• PyBuild [8], a build tool for Python

Integrated tools:

• FinalBuilder
• Visual Build
• BuildIT [9], a free graphical build or task tool for Windows with an emphasis on simplicity and ease of use

• Mike Clark: Pragmatic Project Automation, The Pragmatic Programmers ISBN:0-9745140-3-9
• The Buildmeister [10] - portal dedicated to build and release management

• Unit testing
• Continuous integration
• Release engineering
• build daemons, automation of software package rebuilding