Wednesday, June 16, 2021

Techniques: Build-time pre-package capture

 Usually when things/files are packaged from simple files to single monstrosity, you no longer have the ability to ls/dir to lookup what things/files exist.

An example is a Java jar, where to list for example all the packaged files you either cannot or you need to open a zip stream and figure out yourself.

Also in Java and other languages with limited introspection you cannot for example list all the classes that implement the interface X.

So:

Create a script than generates all the information you want.

Put that script in the build/compile process.

Include the file in the project.

Write some code to parse the file.


Example of listing all the inheritance properties by finding all the extends keyword:

grep -hr extends | sed -E 's/.*class (\w+) extends (\w+) .*/\2 -> \1/'
Parent -> Child1
Parent -> Child2
...

No need to say again and again "This is not supported, I cannot do it", supported yourself, you are a damn programmer! 



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