[j6m8]

I wrote frof [1] for exactly this purpose :)

Designed to be ultra-simple and with minimal "config-file acrobatics".

It looks like this [edit, formatting]:

    write -> analyze
    build -> analyze

    write:     echo 1 2 3 > data.txt
    build:     compile_tool.sh > tool.sh
    analyze:   tool.sh data.txt

https://github.com/j6k4m8/frof/

[pdimitar]

Can you explain that one a little bit more to me, please?

I don't get the first two lines of your example well. They seem to show the dependency but which one is the default task, or how do you ask for a task to be ran?

[j6m8]

You write the file and ALL steps are run in topological order so that a job never runs until its dependencies have run. i.e., in a tool I'll have `build.frof` as a separate frof file than `download-dependencies.frof`, perhaps. (If your preference is that those belong in the same file I'd be down to have PRs that support that! Should be very easy, I'm happy to try implementing this if there's interest.)

So for a file with those contents called `mygraph.frof`, you can (after installing) run `frof mygraph.frof` to kick off the jobs in the current shell (inheriting env vars etc).

[edit] maybe a clarifying example here: https://blog.jordan.matelsky.com/frof-render/

[pdimitar]

OK, so for the example in your comment upthread both `write` and `build` will be executed sequentially?

[j6m8]

here they'll probably be executed simultaneously, since they both have zero dependencies and the machine can run multiple jobs at the same time. (can be disabled with `--max_jobs=1` or `-p=1`).

Here's another illustrative example:

    A -> B
    B -> C
    Z -> C

In this situation, frof will schedule `Z` to run in a parallel thread ASAP, so it will likely run alongside A... and if Z takes longer to run than A, Z will continue running when A stops and B starts. But C will wait for all other jobs to finish before it can schedule.

[pdimitar]

Nice, thanks a lot. Unfortunately I am quite swamped recently so I will definitely cannot help you with feature requests and testing but I have bookmarked frof and absolutely will be giving it a try.

Just one thing I would dislike... Python. How easy it is to run frof without having to fiddle with venvs and such?

[j6m8]

no worries, good to know this would be a useful feature! I'll add it to my backlog.

    pip install 'git+https://github.com/j6k4m8/frof/'

and then

    frof myfile.frof

should work!

Was thinking about rewriting it in Go recently... :)