Nimmake — The Blazing-Fast Build Tool Built for Embedded Development

Nimmake is a lightweight, cross-platform build tool specifically designed for MCU firmware development. This blazing-fast tool is built on Python and optimized for ARM and RISC-V architectures. Nimmake automates the process of compiling C/C++ source code and generates the necessary compile flags. Integrating third-party libraries is effortless, as you can set dependencies between libraries without manually adding source files, headers, or macros.

Its modular Party System allows for easy integration of popular libraries such as FreeRTOS, LVGL, FatFS, EasyLogger, CherryUSB, and FreeModbus.

Nimmake addresses common problems faced during embedded development by offering an incremental build system that only recompiles changed files, multi-process parallelism to fully utilize multi-core CPUs, and a build cache for lightning-fast rebuilds. The tool also supports a wide range of compilers, including armgcc, LLVM/Clang, and armclang, and seamlessly integrates with popular IDEs like VS Code and CLion through the auto-generated compile_commands.json file.

With Nimmake, users can quickly set up a build environment, switch between architectures, collaborate with team members, integrate into CI/CD pipelines, and contribute to the tool's development. To get started, install Nimmake using pip, verify the installation, clone a sample project, and build with a single command.