Bazel is a software tool designed for the automation of building and testing software. It helps developers and teams streamline their workflows by providing a robust, scalable, and efficient system for compiling code and managing dependencies. This guide explores what Bazel is used for, its origins, and who uses it today.
What is Bazel?
Bazel is an open-source build tool that automates the tasks of compiling, testing, and deploying software, and ensures that all components are rebuilt and tested in response to changes to the codebase. Bazel is similar in function to Make, Maven, and Gradle, but it stands out due to its ability to handle very large codebases across multiple repositories and environments.
Key features
- Speed and scalability: Bazel is optimized for speed and scalability, making it ideal for large projects with extensive codebases and dependencies.
- Incremental builds: It builds and tests only what is necessary by analyzing the dependencies between components. This means that only the parts of the system affected by a change are rebuilt, which significantly reduces build time.
- Reproducibility: Bazel ensures that builds are reproducible and consistent across all environments, from a developer's laptop to the CI/CD pipeline, reducing the "it works on my machine" syndrome.
- Extensibility: It supports multiple languages and platforms, including C++, Java, Python, and others, and can be extended to support new languages and platforms.
Origins of Bazel
Bazel originated as an internal project at Google, where it was known as "Blaze." Google developed Blaze to meet its needs for a highly scalable and efficient build system capable of handling their vast and rapidly evolving codebase. As Google's codebase grew, they needed a tool that could manage dependencies cleanly and ensure that builds were both fast and reliable. In 2015, Google decided to open source the Blaze build system under the name "Bazel," which now continues to evolve with contributions from both Google engineers and the open-source community.
Who uses Bazel today?
Bazel is used by a wide range of organizations, from small startups to large enterprises, particularly those with large, complex codebases that require high-performance build processes. Some notable users include:
- Google: Bazel is extensively used within Google for building some of the largest software systems in the world.
- Angular: The Angular framework uses Bazel for building and testing, highlighting its utility in front-end development environments.
- TensorFlow: TensorFlow, Google’s open-source library for machine learning, uses Bazel to handle its complex dependencies and build processes efficiently.
- Dropbox: They have used Bazel to manage and simplify their builds across multiple platforms and languages.
Conclusion
Bazel stands out in the world of build automation due to its focus on speed, scalability, and reproducibility. It is particularly beneficial for large-scale projects where performance and efficiency are critical. By automating the build and test processes, Bazel helps teams reduce build times, increase developer productivity, and maintain consistency across all stages of development. As the scale of software development continues to grow, tools like Bazel are becoming increasingly essential for teams that need to manage large codebases efficiently while ensuring that their builds are fast and reliable.
For further reading on Bazel see the official documentation.
