Buck2 vs qmake

Buck2 is a free build system from Meta for large-scale repositories that combine multiple programming languages. It uses Starlark rules, a dynamic dependency graph, and incremental actions to support extensible builds. Its language table lists prelude rules for C/C++, Erlang, Go, Haskell, Java, Kotlin, OCaml, Python, and Rust, though usability varies by language. Build actions can run remotely through services exposing Bazel's remote execution API; the project lists BuildBarn, BuildBuddy, EngFlow, and NativeLink as compatible with its distributed compilation support. Buck2 supports filesystem watching and can integrate with Meta's optional Eden virtual filesystem. Rules are hermetic by default and missing dependencies are errors, but local-only build steps are not sandboxed. The project describes Buck2 as early-stage and says it has no stable release tag; its latest binary tag changes with repository pushes. It warns that outside users may encounter rough edges, missing features, and missing toolchains. Source and binaries are available under MIT and Apache-2.0 licenses. The project directs users to GitHub for issue reports and offers a community Discord server.

qmake manages builds for applications, libraries and other components by turning project files into Makefiles. Its `.pro` files can define source files, configuration, libraries and include paths. It supplies build rules for Qt's moc and uic tools, with templates for applications, libraries and plugins. Projects can specify third-party libraries, and qmake can use pkg-config for supported libraries such as D-Bus and ogg. It can generate Microsoft Visual Studio project files and, on macOS, Xcode project files. Platform notes cover iOS universal binaries, frameworks and bundles. In Qt 6, qmake remains supported for building Qt applications, but cannot compile custom Qt plugins or libraries that rely on Qt 5 build-system internals. Qt warns that building an untrusted project can execute code on the build machine. The Qt Community Edition is free under LGPL or GPL terms, with source-code obligations and limited access to some Qt capabilities.