Automating Build Files

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" summary

A Google-internal build-file automation runs for a decade, supports 20+ languages and handles 250k requests/day. Three resolution strategies appear: fast string manipulation + syntactic edits (hundreds of ms), compiler-driven analysis (accurate but expensive), and the favored bazel query + semantic edits (1–2s, understands macros and rule semantics). The system calls out to Bulldozer for formatting, uses pragmas/metadata to map macros to generated rules, and recommends keeping BUILD files declarative to make automation reliable.

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" chapters (14)

1. 0:00Build file automation intro
2. 1:05What automated build management does
3. 3:57Why optimize dependencies
4. 5:22Resolving imports with strings
5. 9:16Problems with string imports
6. 12:25Compiler output for dependencies
7. 15:31Automating import resolution
8. 17:37Updating build files syntactically
9. 19:43Semantic edits for builds
10. 22:57Choosing the right approach
11. 25:05Making builds tool-friendly
12. 28:07Q&A
13. 30:15Fixing build anti-patterns
14. 31:59Future of build tooling