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<concept id="GUID-B6B54E07-3B34-5D5C-8815-93383FA8FB4B" xml:lang="en"><title>How

to use abld</title><prolog><metadata><keywords/></metadata></prolog><conbody>

<p>The <filepath>abld.bat</filepath> batch file is used to control all aspects

of building a project. It is created in the current directory by the <filepath>bldmake</filepath> tool

from a component description file <filepath>bld.inf</filepath>. </p>

<p>The syntax reference for this tool exhaustively lists all of the possible

build operations which can be performed using <filepath>abld</filepath>. The

tool's flexibility obscures the fact that most Symbian developers will only

need to use two commands: one for cleaning up all files created in a previous

build, and another for building the current project. </p>

<section><title>Cleaning</title> <p>Cleaning removes all the intermediate

files created during compilation, and all the executables and import libraries

created by the linker. The simplest invocation of this operation deletes the

files for all platforms, and projects belonging to the component. </p> <p><userinput>abld

clean</userinput> </p> <p>It is also possible to specify the platform and

build variant to be cleaned. </p> </section>

<section><title>Building</title> <p> <filepath>abld</filepath> builds projects

based on the makefiles created by <filepath>bldmake</filepath> from the component

information file and project files. </p> <p>The simplest invocation of this

command builds the project for all possible build variants: </p> <p><userinput>abld

build</userinput> </p> <p>However building for a platform can take some time,

and it is usual to only specify the platform required. For example, to build

the debug version on the WINSCW platform specify: </p> <p><userinput>abld

build winscw udeb</userinput> </p> <p>or to build the release version for

ARMV5 use: </p> <p><userinput>abld build armv5 urel</userinput> </p><note>The <codeph>build</codeph> command

combines the other <filepath>abld</filepath> commands: <codeph>export</codeph>, <codeph>makefile</codeph>, <codeph>library</codeph>, <codeph>resource</codeph>, <codeph>target</codeph> and <codeph>final</codeph>, which are carried out

in turn. </note> <p><b>See also </b> </p> <p><xref href="GUID-5A3A3EA0-6C03-56F2-B277-B61A27ABFF9E.dita">Abld

syntax</xref> </p><p><xref href="GUID-793A5EF9-CC16-5EEB-9011-6431EA76EB15.dita">Using

bldmake</xref> </p> </section>