File Targets

File recipes are conditional—they only run if the output file is missing or any dependency file has been modified.

Basic Syntax

file dist/app.js: src/index.ts
    esbuild src/index.ts --outfile=dist/app.js

The recipe name is the output file path. Dependencies are listed after the colon.

Multiple Dependencies

file dist/bundle.js: src/index.ts src/utils.ts src/helpers.ts
    esbuild src/index.ts --bundle --outfile=dist/bundle.js

Glob Patterns

Use patterns to match multiple files:

file dist/app.js: src/**/*.ts
    esbuild src/index.ts --bundle --outfile=dist/app.js

Supported patterns:

• * - Match any characters except /
• ** - Match any characters including / (recursive)
• ? - Match single character
• [abc] - Match character class
• [a-z] - Match character range

Chained Builds

File recipes can chain together for multi-stage builds:

# Stage 1: Compile TypeScript
file dist/compiled.js: src/**/*.ts
    tsc --outFile dist/compiled.js

# Stage 2: Minify (depends on Stage 1 output)
file dist/app.min.js: dist/compiled.js
    terser dist/compiled.js -o dist/app.min.js

# Task to trigger the full build
task build: [dist/app.min.js]
    echo "Build complete!"

When you run jake build, Jake automatically:

1. Checks if dist/compiled.js needs rebuilding
2. Checks if dist/app.min.js needs rebuilding
3. Only runs the necessary stages

Examples

CSS Compilation

file dist/styles.css: src/styles.scss
    sass src/styles.scss dist/styles.css

Multi-file Bundle

file dist/bundle.js: src/**/*.js lib/**/*.js
    cat src/*.js lib/*.js > dist/bundle.js

Binary Compilation

cc = "gcc"
cflags = "-Wall -O2"

file app: main.c utils.c
    {{cc}} {{cflags}} -o app main.c utils.c

When to Use File Targets

Use file when:

• The recipe produces an output file
• You want incremental builds (skip if output is up-to-date)
• Build times matter and you want to avoid unnecessary work

Use task when:

• The command should run every time
• There’s no specific output file