About

Build tool are tools that

• takes your sources:
• compile it into a target format such as
  • a compiled file for a language that is not interpreted
  • an HTML or Word document for a markdown document
  • …
• test it eventually
• distribute it (to a web site, …)
• generate the documentation.

It's an helper tool in order to build an application

See also Code Shipping - Change and Deployment Pipeline - Development Lifecycle / Workflow.

The result of a successful build (artifacts) can be uploaded elsewhere.

A build is generally triggered:

• by a Version Control - Commit Hash - Content Versioning
• or for a recurrent period of time (checking the file modification time)

The next step in the process of code shipping is the creation of a release.

Documentation

• How we build code at Netflix