Maintaining Files on Plan 9 with Mk | Hacker News Reader

Maintaining Files on Plan 9 with Mk

9p.io

68 pointsjsfcoding16 comments

I use mk for all my personal projects. It is such a useful place to store maintenance operations on files exactly where they are needed. Not just build-type operations, but also syncing with remote stuff and other maintenance things.

My webside is managed by a big mkfile which builds html from markdown using pandoc and deploys over ssh. There is even a target in there for checking for dead links using curl.

I just counted: 778 mkfiles in my personal files.

That sounds really interesting, any chance you could post the mkfile you use for that?

Sure, I will post it once I get home. There is no hocus pocus in it, but I has been working for me without issue for close to a decade already.

Did you ever get home?

I did in fact finally reach my home after long wanderings: https://okturing.com/src/14174/body

Here it is: https://okturing.com/src/14174/body

Just say if something needs explaining. There are some references to other fines in there, like the deployment index (its just list of files to deploy) and the comment blob (it is just a notice that people can comment by e-mail.

Any reason you chose to use mk over (GNU) Make?

Mostly just the simpler syntax. I always found makefiles a bit off-putting. On the other hand, the syntax for mkfiles, especially with rc as the mk shell, feels slick and homely.

> feels slick and homely.

I presume “homely” is this context means UK “familiar and pleasant, as in a home”, and not US “not attractive or good-looking”.

Hah, I forget the American meaning of that word. Indeed “homely” as in “the last homely house east of the sea”.

Archive link as I'm having issues accessing the page: https://archive.ph/7GWAI

thanks

Source code for the curious: https://github.com/0intro/plan9/tree/main/sys/src/cmd/mk

Is the make from Go based on the Plan 9 Mk? Or is it something else entirely?

What do you mean by “make from Go”?

Nevermind, I see that Go has a build subcommand.

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