CMake Source List Maintenance: Automatically updates source file lists in CMake files
Self-Header Includes: Ensures source files include their corresponding headers
IWYU-Style Analysis: Suggests missing headers based on symbol usage
.gitignore Support: Respects .gitignore patterns when scanning files
Auto-Discovery: Can discover CMake libraries that opt-in to auto-maintenance

Usage

# Dry-run to see what would change (recommended first step)
python3 scripts/build_cleaner.py --dry-run

# Update CMake source lists and header includes
python3 scripts/build_cleaner.py

# Run IWYU-style header analysis
python3 scripts/build_cleaner.py --iwyu

# Auto-discover CMake libraries marked for auto-maintenance
python3 scripts/build_cleaner.py --auto-discover

# Update only CMake source lists
python3 scripts/build_cleaner.py --cmake-only

# Update only header includes
python3 scripts/build_cleaner.py --includes-only

Opting-In to Auto-Maintenance

By default, the script only auto-maintains source lists that are explicitly marked. To mark a CMake variable for auto-maintenance, add a comment above the set() statement:

# This list is auto-maintained by scripts/build_cleaner.py
set(
  YAZE_APP_EMU_SRC
  app/emu/audio/apu.cc
  app/emu/cpu/cpu.cc
  # ... more files
)

The script looks for comments containing "auto-maintain" (case-insensitive) within 3 lines above the set() statement.

Excluding Files from Processing

To exclude a specific file from all processing (CMake lists, header includes, IWYU), add this token near the top of the file:

// build_cleaner:ignore

.gitignore Support

The script automatically respects .gitignore patterns. To enable this feature, install the pathspec dependency:

pip3 install -r scripts/requirements.txt
# or
pip3 install pathspec

IWYU Configuration

The script includes basic IWYU-style analysis that suggests headers based on symbol prefixes. To customize which headers are suggested, edit the COMMON_HEADERS dictionary in the script:

COMMON_HEADERS = {
    'std::': ['<memory>', '<string>', '<vector>', ...],
    'absl::': ['<absl/status/status.h>', ...],
    'ImGui::': ['<imgui.h>'],
    'SDL_': ['<SDL.h>'],
}

Note: The IWYU analysis is conservative and may suggest headers that are already transitively included. Use with care and review suggestions before applying.

Integration with CMake

The script is integrated into the CMake build system:

# Run as a CMake target
cmake --build build --target build_cleaner

Dependencies

Python 3.7+
pathspec (optional, for .gitignore support): pip3 install pathspec

How It Works

CMake Maintenance: Scans directories specified in the configuration and updates set(VAR_NAME ...) blocks with the current list of source files
Self-Headers: For each .cc/.cpp file, ensures it includes its corresponding .h file
IWYU Analysis: Scans source files for symbols and suggests appropriate headers based on prefix matching

Current Auto-Maintained Variables

All 20 library source lists are now auto-maintained by default:

Core: YAZE_APP_EMU_SRC, YAZE_APP_CORE_SRC, YAZE_APP_EDITOR_SRC, YAZE_APP_ZELDA3_SRC, YAZE_NET_SRC, YAZE_UTIL_SRC
GFX: GFX_TYPES_SRC, GFX_BACKEND_SRC, GFX_RESOURCE_SRC, GFX_CORE_SRC, GFX_UTIL_SRC, GFX_RENDER_SRC, GFX_DEBUG_SRC
GUI: GUI_CORE_SRC, CANVAS_SRC, GUI_WIDGETS_SRC, GUI_AUTOMATION_SRC, GUI_APP_SRC
Other: YAZE_AGENT_SOURCES, YAZE_TEST_SOURCES

The script intelligently preserves conditional blocks (if/endif) and excludes conditional files from the main source list.

verify-build-environment.*

verify-build-environment.ps1 (Windows) and verify-build-environment.sh (macOS/Linux) are the primary diagnostics for contributors. They now:

Check for clang-cl, Ninja, NASM, Visual Studio workloads, and VS Code (optional).
Validate vcpkg bootstrap status plus vcpkg/installed cache contents.
Warn about missing ROM assets (zelda3.sfc, assets/zelda3.sfc, etc.).
Offer -FixIssues and -CleanCache switches to repair Git config, resync submodules, and wipe stale build directories.

Run the script once per machine (and rerun after major toolchain updates) to ensure presets such as win-dbg, win-ai, mac-ai, and ci-windows-ai have everything they need.

setup-vcpkg-windows.ps1

Automates the vcpkg bootstrap flow on Windows:

Clones and bootstraps vcpkg (if not already present).
Verifies that git, clang-cl, and Ninja are available, printing friendly instructions when they are missing.
Installs the default triplet (x64-windows or arm64-windows when detected) and confirms that vcpkg/installed/<triplet> is populated.
Reminds you to rerun .\scripts\verify-build-environment.ps1 -FixIssues to double-check the environment.

Use it immediately after cloning the repository or whenever you need to refresh your local dependency cache before running win-ai or ci-windows-ai presets.

CMake Validation Tools

A comprehensive toolkit for validating CMake configuration and catching dependency issues early. These tools help prevent build failures by detecting configuration problems before compilation.

validate-cmake-config.cmake

Validates CMake configuration by checking targets, flags, and platform-specific settings.

# Validate default build directory
cmake -P scripts/validate-cmake-config.cmake

# Validate specific build directory
cmake -P scripts/validate-cmake-config.cmake build_ai

What it checks:

Required targets exist
Feature flag consistency (AI requires gRPC, etc.)
Compiler settings (C++23, MSVC runtime on Windows)
Abseil configuration on Windows (prevents missing include issues)
Output directories
Common configuration mistakes

check-include-paths.sh

Validates include paths in compile_commands.json to catch missing includes before build.

# Check default build directory
./scripts/check-include-paths.sh

# Check specific build
./scripts/check-include-paths.sh build_ai

# Verbose mode (show all include dirs)
VERBOSE=1 ./scripts/check-include-paths.sh build

Requires: jq for better parsing (optional but recommended): brew install jq

What it checks:

Common dependencies (SDL2, ImGui, yaml-cpp)
Platform-specific includes
Abseil includes from gRPC build (critical on Windows)
Suspicious configurations (missing -I flags, relative paths)

visualize-deps.py

Generates dependency graphs and detects circular dependencies.

# Generate GraphViz diagram
python3 scripts/visualize-deps.py build --format graphviz -o deps.dot
dot -Tpng deps.dot -o deps.png

# Generate Mermaid diagram
python3 scripts/visualize-deps.py build --format mermaid -o deps.mmd

# Show statistics
python3 scripts/visualize-deps.py build --stats

Formats:

graphviz: DOT format for rendering with dot command
mermaid: For embedding in Markdown/documentation
text: Simple text tree for quick overview

Features:

Detects circular dependencies (highlighted in red)
Shows dependency statistics
Color-coded targets (executables, libraries, etc.)

test-cmake-presets.sh

Tests that all CMake presets can configure successfully.

# Test all presets for current platform
./scripts/test-cmake-presets.sh

# Test specific preset
./scripts/test-cmake-presets.sh --preset mac-ai

# Test in parallel (faster)
./scripts/test-cmake-presets.sh --platform mac --parallel 4

# Quick mode (don't clean between tests)
./scripts/test-cmake-presets.sh --quick

Options:

--parallel N: Test N presets in parallel (default: 4)
--preset NAME: Test only specific preset
--platform PLATFORM: Test only mac/win/lin presets
--quick: Skip cleaning between tests
--verbose: Show full CMake output

Usage in Development Workflow

After configuring CMake:

cmake --preset mac-ai
cmake -P scripts/validate-cmake-config.cmake build
./scripts/check-include-paths.sh build

Before committing:

# Test all platform presets configure successfully
./scripts/test-cmake-presets.sh --platform mac

When adding new targets:

# Check for circular dependencies
python3 scripts/visualize-deps.py build --stats

For full details, see docs/internal/testing/cmake-validation.md

Symbol Conflict Detection

Tools to detect One Definition Rule (ODR) violations and duplicate symbol definitions before linking fails.

Quick Start

# Extract symbols from object files
./scripts/extract-symbols.sh

# Check for conflicts
./scripts/check-duplicate-symbols.sh

# Run tests
./scripts/test-symbol-detection.sh

Scripts

extract-symbols.sh

Scans compiled object files and creates a JSON database of all symbols and their locations.

Features:

Cross-platform: macOS/Linux (nm), Windows (dumpbin)
Fast: ~2-3 seconds for typical builds
Identifies duplicate definitions across object files
Tracks symbol type (text, data, read-only, etc.)

Usage:

# Extract from build directory
./scripts/extract-symbols.sh build

# Custom output file
./scripts/extract-symbols.sh build symbols.json

Output: build/symbol_database.json - JSON with symbol conflicts listed

check-duplicate-symbols.sh

Analyzes symbol database and reports conflicts in developer-friendly format.

Usage:

# Check default database
./scripts/check-duplicate-symbols.sh

# Verbose output
./scripts/check-duplicate-symbols.sh --verbose

# Include fix suggestions
./scripts/check-duplicate-symbols.sh --fix-suggestions

Exit codes:

0 = No conflicts found
1 = Conflicts detected (fails in CI/pre-commit)

test-symbol-detection.sh

Integration test suite for symbol detection system.

Usage:

./scripts/test-symbol-detection.sh

Validates:

Scripts are executable
Build directory and object files exist
Symbol extraction works correctly
JSON database is valid
Duplicate checker runs successfully
Pre-commit hook is configured

Git Hook Integration

First-time setup:

git config core.hooksPath .githooks
chmod +x .githooks/pre-commit

The pre-commit hook automatically runs symbol checks on changed files:

Fast: ~1-2 seconds
Only checks affected objects
Warns about conflicts
Can skip with --no-verify if needed

CI/CD Integration

The symbol-detection.yml GitHub Actions workflow runs on:

All pushes to master and develop
All pull requests affecting C++ files
Workflows can be triggered manually

What it does:

Builds project
Extracts symbols from all object files
Checks for conflicts
Uploads symbol database as artifact
Fails job if conflicts found

Common Fixes

Duplicate global variable:

// Bad - defined in both files
ABSL_FLAG(std::string, rom, "", "ROM path");

// Fix 1: Use static (internal linkage)
static ABSL_FLAG(std::string, rom, "", "ROM path");

// Fix 2: Use anonymous namespace
namespace {
  ABSL_FLAG(std::string, rom, "", "ROM path");
}

Duplicate function:

// Bad - defined in both files
void ProcessData() { /* ... */ }

// Fix: Make inline or use static
inline void ProcessData() { /* ... */ }

Performance

Operation	Time
Extract (4000 objects, macOS)	~3s
Extract (4000 objects, Windows)	~5-7s
Check duplicates	<100ms
Pre-commit hook	~1-2s

Documentation

Full documentation available in: