This is the 61st Step towards gaining the Programming Enlightenment series. If you didn’t learn the 60th Step, read it.
What is Build?
Historically, the term build refers to the process by which source code is converted into a stand-alone form that can be run on a computer or to the form itself.
However, this is not the case with languages like Perl, Ruby or Python which are interpreted languages.
What is Binary?
Normally referred to as Binary, it’s a computer file that is not a text file.
A Binary is computer-readable but not human-readable file.
All executable programs are stored in binary files, as most are numeric data files.
Why should we have one Binary?
When we work in a software project, for instance, Android Application might have different build types like debug-build, release-build with different flavors.
Since, building the binary is done on a typically assigned machine or containers, where all of the system environment variables are the same. This means what we test for debug-build are the same as for the release-build except for some minor adjustments.
How do we have one Binary?
OS-level virtualization allows us to have the existence of multiple isolated user-space instances. Such, instances are called container, partitions, virtual environments (VEs) or jalls.
There are various implementations for it, like Docker, Microsoft Azure, Kubernetes, Hyper-V, Google GKE.
TL;DR Always Build One Binary.
Go to 60th Step
Go to the 61st Step.
References:
- 97 things Every Programmer Should Know ~ Git Book
- 97 Things Every Programmer Should Know ~ Paperback
- What is build? ~Wiki
- What is binary? ~Wiki
- What is OS-level virtualization? ~Wiki
