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parallel cross building with VirtualAxis

This is part 2 of the post about sbt-projectmatrix, an experimental plugin that I’ve been working to improve the cross building in sbt. Here’s part 1. I’ve just released 0.4.0.

recap: building against multiple Scala versions

After adding sbt-projectmatrix to your build, here’s how you can set up a matrix with two Scala versions.

ThisBuild / organization := "com.example"
ThisBuild / scalaVersion := "2.12.10"
ThisBuild / version      := "0.1.0-SNAPSHOT"

lazy val core = (projectMatrix in file("core"))
  .settings(
    name := "core"
  )
  .jvmPlatform(scalaVersions = Seq("2.12.10", "2.11.12"))

This will create subprojects coreJVM2_11 and coreJVM2_12. Unlike ++ style stateful cross building, these will build in parallel. This part has not changed.

Previous post also discussed the idea of extending the idea to cross-platform and cross-library building.

problem with 0.2.0

Two issues were submitted Support for mixed-style matrix dependencies #13 and Support for pure Java subprojects #14 that made me realize the limitation of 0.2.0 design. In 0.2.0, each row was expressed as follows:

final class ProjectRow(
    val idSuffix: String,
    val directorySuffix: String,
    val scalaVersions: Seq[String],
    val process: Project => Project
) {}

This limited the thing we can track using the row to one dimension (like platform) plus a specific Scala version. The reported issues are variants of each other in a sense that it’s about relating one row in a matrix to a row in another matrix with a slighly weaker constraint.

VirtualAxis

sbt-projectmatrix 0.4.0 introduces VirtualAxis although you can use sbt-projectmatrix without understanding it initially.

/** A row in the project matrix, typically representing a platform + Scala version.
 */
final class ProjectRow(
    val autoScalaLibrary: Boolean,
    val axisValues: Seq[VirtualAxis],
    val process: Project => Project
)

/** Virtual Axis represents a parameter to a project matrix row. */
sealed abstract class VirtualAxis {
  def directorySuffix: String

  def idSuffix: String

  /* The order to sort the suffixes if there were multiple axes. */
  def suffixOrder: Int = 50
}

object VirtualAxis {
  /**
   * WeakAxis allows a row to depend on another row with Zero value.
   * For example, Scala version can be Zero for Java project, and it's ok.
   */
  abstract class WeakAxis extends VirtualAxis

  /** StrongAxis requires a row to depend on another row with the same selected value. */
  abstract class StrongAxis extends VirtualAxis
  
  ....
}

ProjectRow is now a set of VirtualAxis. Typical use of VirtualAxis will be for tracking platform (JVM, JS, Native) and Scala versions. The VirtualAxis class splits into two subclasses WeakAxis and StrongAxis.

StrongAxis requires that the related rows to have the same value, which is useful for things like platform. On the other hand, WeakAxis can either have the same value, or no value. An example of this is Scala version.

lazy val intf = (projectMatrix in file("intf"))
  .jvmPlatform(autoScalaLibrary = false)

lazy val core = (projectMatrix in file("core"))
  .dependsOn(intf)
  .jvmPlatform(scalaVersions = Seq("2.12.10", "2.11.12"))

In the above, the matrix core has two JVM rows corresponding to the Scala versions 2.12.10 and 2.11.12. Because ScalaVersionAxis is a weak axis it’s able to depend on the JVM row in intf without a Scala version.

parallel cross-library building

We can implement parallel cross-library building by defining a custom VirtualAxis. In project/LightbendConfigAxis.scala:

import sbt._

case class LightbendConfigAxis(idSuffix: String, directorySuffix: String) extends VirtualAxis.WeakAxis {
}

Then in build.sbt:

ThisBuild / organization := "com.example"
ThisBuild / version := "0.1.0-SNAPSHOT"

lazy val config12 = LightbendConfigAxis("Config1_2", "config1.2")
lazy val config13 = LightbendConfigAxis("Config1_3", "config1.3")

lazy val scala212 = "2.12.10"
lazy val scala211 = "2.11.12"

lazy val app = (projectMatrix in file("app"))
  .settings(
    name := "app"
  )
  .customRow(
    scalaVersions = Seq(scala212, scala211),
    axisValues = Seq(config12, VirtualAxis.jvm),
    settings = Seq(
      moduleName := name.value + "_config1.2",
      libraryDependencies += "com.typesafe" % "config" % "1.2.1",
    )
  )
  .customRow(
    scalaVersions = Seq(scala212, scala211),
    axisValues = Seq(config13, VirtualAxis.jvm),
    settings = Seq(
      moduleName := name.value + "_config1.3",
      libraryDependencies += "com.typesafe" % "config" % "1.3.3",
    )
  )

Note that LightbendConfigAxis extends VirtualAxis.WeakAxis. This allows app matrix to depend on other matrices that do not use the LightbendConfigAxis.

referencing the generated subprojects

You might want to reference one of the projects within build.sbt:

lazy val core212 = core.jvm("2.12.10")

lazy val appConfig12_212 = app.finder(config13, VirtualAxis.jvm)("2.12.10")
  .settings(
    publishMavenStyle := true
  )

Scala Native support

Thanks to Tatsuno-san (@exoego), we have Scala Native support in sbt-projectmatrix in addition to Scala.JS support since 0.3.0. To use this, you need to setup sbt-scala-native as well:

lazy val core = (projectMatrix in file("core"))
  .settings(
    name := "core",
    Compile / run mainClass := Some("a.CoreMain")
  )
  .nativePlatform(scalaVersions = Seq("2.11.12"))

summary