GYP (software) explained

GYP
Author:Mark Mentovai
Developer:Chromium.org
Programming Language:Python
Operating System:macOS, Linux, Solaris, FreeBSD, OpenBSD, Windows
Genre:Build automation programming
License:BSD license

GYP (generate your projects) is an obsolete build automation tool created in 2011 by Google.[1] Its purpose was to generate native IDE project files (such as Visual Studio and Xcode) for building the Chromium web browser and is licensed as open source software using the BSD software license.

The functionality of GYP is similar to the CMake build tool. GYP processes a file that contains a JSON dictionary[2] in order to generate one or more target project make files. The single source .GYP file is generic while the target files are specific to each targeted build tool.

In 2016, the Chromium project replaced GYP with GN, a tool that generates ninja builds. The switch to GN resulted in a 20x speedup for their use case.[3] [4] Other projects that migrated from GYP to GN include the V8 Javascript engine,[5] WebRTC[6] and Dart.[7]

Software projects that are still built using GYP include Node.js[8] and Telegram.[9]

Notes and References

  1. Web site: GitHub - chromium/gyp: GYP is a Meta-Build system: a build system that generates other build systems.. 2021-07-28. GitHub. en.
  2. Web site: Gyp Make file dictionary. GYP user documentation.
  3. https://chromium.googlesource.com/chromium/src/tools/gn/+/48062805e19b4697c5fbd926dc649c78b6aaa138/README.md; new version
  4. Web site: GN build configuration .
  5. Web site: Building V8 with GN. Bynens, Mathias. 2019-08-27. v8.dev .
  6. https://bugs.chromium.org/p/webrtc/issues/detail?id=3441 Issue 3441: Convert WebRTC GYP files to GN
  7. Web site: Dart . . 12 May 2022 .
  8. Web site: Announcing Node 0.8. the Node.js official blog. 25 June 2012. Schlueter, Isaac Z. https://web.archive.org/web/20140802020109/http://blog.nodejs.org/2012/06/25/node-v0-8-0/. 2014-08-02. live.
  9. Web site: Telegram Desktop – Official Messenger: Third Party components. GitHub. 2021-04-10.