---
name: "ckati"
section: "1"
platform: "linux"
package: "ckati"
version: "10.0.0+r32+git20220314.09dfa26c4e59-7.1+b8"
release: "Debian 13 (Trixie)"
platforms: ["linux"]
url: "https://new.carta.tech/ckati"
---

# ckati(1)

### NAME

ckati - experimental GNU make clone

### SYNOPSIS

**ckati** \[*OPTION*\]... \[*TARGET*\]...

### DESCRIPTION

*ckati* is a C++ implementation of **kati**, an experimental **make** clone.

The motivation of **kati** was to speed up Android platform build. The Android platform’s build system is built on **GNU make** and allows developers to write build rules in a descriptive way.

*ckati* is a complete rewrite of **GNU make** from scratch, focused on speeding up incremental builds.

*ckati* supports two modes of execution. It can directly execute the commands specified in the *Makefile*, or it can generate a *ninja* file corresponding to the *Makefile*.

The *ninja* generator mode is the main mode of operation, since the built-in executor of *ckati* lacks important features for a build system like parallel builds.

The *ninja* generator mode is not fully compatible with **GNU** **make** due to a feature mismatch between **make** and **ninja**. Since **ninja** only allows one command per a rule, when the *Makefile* has multiple commands, *ckati* generates a rule with the commands joined with `&&`. When `$(shell ...)` is used, *ckati* translates it into shell’s `$(...)`. This works in many cases, but doesn’t when the result of `$(shell ...)` is passed to another function:

-

  ```
  all:
      echo $(if $(shell echo),FAIL,PASS)
  ```

If `-\-regen` flag is specified, *ckati* checks if anything in your environment has changed after the previous run. If the *ninja* file doesn’t need to be regenerated, it finishes quickly.

The following is checked when deciding whether the *ninja* file should be regenerated or not:

- •

  The command line flags passed to *ckati*

- •

  Timestamps of the *Makefiles* used to generate the previous *ninja* file

- •

  Environment variables used while evaluating *Makefiles*

- •

  Results of `$(wildcard ...)`

- •

  Results of `$(shell ...)`

*Ckati* doesn’t run `$(shell date ...)` and `$(shell echo ...)` during these checks.

*Ckati* optimises `$(shell find ...)` calls, since the Android’s build system uses a lot of them to create a list of all .java/.mk files under a directory, and they are slow. *Ckati* has a built-in emulator of **GNU find**. The find emulator traverse the directory tree and creates an in-memory directory tree. When `$(shell find ...)` is used, the find emulator returns results of **find** commands using the cached tree, giving a performance boost.

### OPTIONS

- **-d**

  Print debugging information.

- **--warn**

  Print *ckati* warnings.

- **-f** *FILE*

  Use *FILE* as a *Makefile*.

- **-c**

  Do not run anything, only perform a syntax check.

- **-i**

  Dry run mode: print the commands that would be executed, but do not execute them.

- **-s**

  Silent operation; do not print the commands as they are executed.

- **-j** *JOBS*

  Specifies the number of *JOBS* (commands) to run simultaneously.

- **--no\_builtin\_rules**

  Do not provide any built-in rules.

- **--ninja**

  Ninja generator mode: do not execute commands directly, but generate a *ninja* file. By default, the ninja file is saved as `build.ninja`, and a shell script to execute **ninja** is saved as `ninja.sh`. An optional suffix can be added to the file names by using **--ninja\_suffix** option.

- **--ninja\_dir**

  The directory where the *ninja* file will be generated; the default is the current directory.

- **--ninja\_suffix**

  The *ninja* file suffix; the default is no suffix.

- **--use\_find\_emulator**

  Emulate `find` command calls to improve build performance.

- **--regen**

  Regenerate the *ninja* file only when necessary.

- **--detect\_android\_echo**

  Detect the use of `$(shell echo ...)` in Android build system.

- **--detect\_depfiles**

  Detect dependency files.

The following options can emit warnings or errors if certain *Makefile* features are used:

- **--werror\_overriding\_commands**

  Fail when overriding commands for a previously defined target.

- **--warn\_implicit\_rules**, **--werror\_implicit\_rules**

  Warn or fail when implicit rules are used.

- **--warn\_suffix\_rules**, **--werror\_suffix\_rules**

  Warn or fail when suffix rules are used.

- **--warn\_real\_to\_phony**, **--werror\_real\_to\_phony**

  Warn or fail when a real target depends on a `PHONY` target.

- **--warn\_phony\_looks\_real**, **--werror\_phony\_looks\_real**

  Warn or fail when a `PHONY` target contains slashes.

- **--werror\_writable**

  Fail when writing to a read-only directory.

### SUPPORTED MAKE FUNCTIONS

Text functions:

- •

  `subst`

- •

  `patsubst`

- •

  `strip`

- •

  `findstring`

- •

  `filter`

- •

  `filter-out`

- •

  `sort`

- •

  `word`

- •

  `wordlist`

- •

  `words`

- •

  `firstword`

- •

  `lastword`

File name functions:

- •

  `dir`

- •

  `notdir`

- •

  `suffix`

- •

  `basename`

- •

  `addsuffix`

- •

  `addprefix`

- •

  `join`

- •

  `wildcard`

- •

  `realpath`

- •

  `abspath`

Conditional functions:

- •

  `if`

- •

  `or`

- •

  `and`

Make control functions:

- •

  `info`

- •

  `warning`

- •

  `error`

Miscellaneous:

- •

  `value`

- •

  `eval`

- •

  `shell`

- •

  `call`

- •

  `foreach`

- •

  `origin`

- •

  `flavor`

- •

  `file`

### EXIT STATUS

**ckati** exits with a status of zero if all *Makefiles* were successfully parsed and no targets that were built failed.

### SEE ALSO

[**make**(1)](/make/1.md), [**ninja**(1)](/ninja/1.md)

### AUTHOR

This manual page was written by Andrej Shadura for the Debian project.