=== The D Shared Software System ===

DSSS, the D Shared Software System, is a tool to ease the building,
installation, configuration and acquisition of D software.


== Building ==

There are plenty of tools for building D software. There's bud (previously
build), upon which DSSS is based, the antiquated make, and a plethora of other
tools capable of building D software. DSSS intends to be more generally useful
than any of them.

 * DSSS eliminates the need to keep lists of source files, figuring them all
   out by imports in source. It will even link in the proper libraries
   automatically.
 * DSSS can transparently build libraries from any D package.
 * DSSS automatically generates .di (D import) files for libraries which cause
   code using the library to link it in automatically.
 * DSSS is based on the build tool 'rebuild', which, like bud, has a suite
   of its own features which DSSS can employ.
 * DSSS can automatically choose names for libraries generated from D packages
   which will not conflict with libraries from other sources, or incompatible
   compilers. So you do not need to concern yourself with library names.


== Installation ==

As compared to building software, there are few tools capable of installing D
software well.

 * DSSS maintains a centralized repository of installed software, such that you
   can use it in your software trivially. .di files and library files are all
   managed by DSSS, as part of its effort to make imports map to library files
   automatically.
 * DSSS keeps track of all of the software that has been installed through
   DSSS, so any of it can be uninstalled easily.


== Configuration ==

DSSS' build configuration file (dsss.conf) allows full use of version
statements from D. So, you can fine-tune your software to build precisely what
is necessary for the host system.


== Acquisition ==

In the spirit of Perl's CPAN or Ruby's Gems, DSSS has a central repository of
sources for D software. It maintains a list of software packages available,
where they can be acquired, and what packages/modules they provide. Because it
maintains a list of packages and modules, dependencies for a tool can be
installed as easily as:
$ dsss net deps

DSSS will then trace all of the software's D dependencies and install them.
This feature can of course also be used to install arbitrary software, such as:
$ dsss net install mango

Upon either of these commands, DSSS will download the software from its
upstream source, compile it, and install it.


== More Information ==

DSSS is available from http://www.dsource.org/projects/dsss . It is FOSS
(Free/Open Source Software) under a very permissive license. Its development
code base is maintained in subversion and can be checked out from the following
URL:
http://svn.dsource.org/projects/dsss/trunk

