The Back-Ends

Almost any non-interactive program may be used as a qef back-end. As such qef has been used for a wide range of applications, not just software construction (e.g., driving empire). Using standard tools (e.g., make, sh, tar, rdist) is not uncommon. In some instances programs have been created to be used as qef back-end for a single application. However, three programs (qsh, mimk, and qmk), were created to be general purpose qef back-ends and one of them is used in most directories.

QSH

qsh is just a much reduced shell command interpreter, with features to control command echo and exit on failure. It also monitors the qef halt file so as to stop processing when required. qsh is used when the required constructions are unconditional or can be selected by the script generator (i.e., make would just get in the way).

MIMK and QMK

For the first 4 years, qef used make as its primary back-end, but that caused a number of problems. make is not standard (implementations vary greatly); does not provide the required consistency mechanisms; does not provide some of the required semantics such as monitoring the qef halt file; and cannot run recipes in parallel.

mimk was dev eloped in the mid-80s to be the qef's engine of consistency. mimk is based on make with extensions to provide recipe and dependency attributes, improved consistency checking and parallel recipe executions. mimk was designed to be a back-end for qef. As such it does not need some of make's facilities. It does not have suffix rules -- the script generators provide complete recipes. It does not have variables -- qefpp does it all.

However, mimk has its own limitations and is being replaced by qmk. qmk is make/mimk-like in purpose. However, its syntax has been extended to provide for extended control and attribute semantics and easier generation by qsg. The major reason for its creation is to provide an improved consistency checker and lazy dynamic dependency list generation.