Building Erlang with Buck2
summary
WhatsApp migrates its mono‑repo Erlang build to Buck2 and open‑sources Erlang rules in Starlark; rules require explicit inputs and favor hermetic, remote‑first execution. Large repo (millions of lines, thousands of files) builds in full repo builds: 2 min cached / 3.5 min uncached versus ~15+ min with rebar3; speed comes from global remote cache and fine‑grained incrementality plus hybrid remote/local execution. Interop lets a project include C/C++ NIFs as NIFs built as C++ targets and run tests, though the test runner is currently basic.
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chapters (16)
- 0:00Intro
- 0:47Why we need another build system
- 1:35Problems with other build systems
- 3:47Large projects
- 4:37Buck2 library
- 4:54Buck2 evolution
- 7:17Faster builds
- 9:31Practice
- 10:22Rules
- 11:43Other Rules
- 12:20Language Interoperability
- 13:48How well does it work
- 15:27Disclaimer
- 16:07What you need
- 16:45Demo
- 19:07Questions
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