Java Extreme Programming Cookbook

Setting Up a Development Environment for Generated Files

Problem

You want to set up your development environment to handle generated files.

Solution

Create two directories at the same level as your source and build tree. The first directory contains generated source code and may be called something like src-generated. The second directory contains compiled code for the generated source and may be called something like build-generated.

Discussion

The best location for generated source files is in a directory at the same level as your source tree and build tree. Equally important is separating the compiled code for generated source files from the compiled code of nongenerated source files. This provides a convenient, easy to manage directory structure, as shown in Figure 9-1.

Figure 9-1. Directory structure for generated files

Why not place generated files in the source directory?

Placing generated files in the src directory causes version control tools to assume new files should be added to the repository, which is simply not true. Generated files should never be versioned, but rather the templates and scripts that are used to generate the files should be versioned.

• DO NOT check generated files into your version control tool.

• DO check the templates and scripts used to generate the files.

Why not place generated files in the build directory?

Placing generated files in the build directory has ...