bob.md 9.6 KB
title: Defold project builder manual
brief: Bob is a command line tool for building Defold projects. This manual explains how to use the tool.
Bob the builder
Bob is a command line tool for building Defold projects outside of the normal editor workflow.
Bob is able to build data (corresponding to the build step of selecting the editor menu item Project ▸ Build), create data archives and create standalone, distributable application bundles (corresponding to the editor menu item Project ▸ Bundle ▸ ... options)
Bob is distributed as a Java JAR archive containing everything needed to build. You find the latest bob.jar distribution on the Defold Download page and the GitHub Releases page. Select a release, then download bob/bob.jar. To run the Bob tool, you need OpenJDK 11 installed on your computer.
Usage
Bob is run from a shell or from the command line by invoking java (or java.exe on Windows) and providing the bob java archive as argument:
$ java -jar bob.jar --help
usage: bob [options] [commands]
-a,--archive Build archive
-ar,--architectures <arg> Comma separated list of
architectures to include for the
platform
--archive-resource-padding <arg> The alignment of the resources in
the game archive. Default is 4
-bf,--bundle-format <arg> Format of the created bundle
(Android: 'apk' and 'aab')
--binary-output <arg> Location where built engine
binary will be placed. Default is
"<build-output>/<platform>/"
-bo,--bundle-output <arg> Bundle output directory
-br,--build-report <arg> Filepath where to save a build
report as JSON
-brhtml,--build-report-html <arg> Filepath where to save a build
report as HTML
--build-artifacts <arg> If left out, will default to
build the engine. Choices:
'engine', 'plugins'. Comma
separated list.
--build-server <arg> The build server (when using
native extensions)
-ce,--certificate <arg> DEPRECATED! Certificate (Android)
-d,--debug Use debug version of dmengine
(when bundling). Deprecated, use
--variant instead
--debug-ne-upload Outputs the files sent to build
server as upload.zip
--defoldsdk <arg> What version of the defold sdk
(sha1) to use
-e,--email <arg> User email
--exclude-build-folder <arg> Comma separated list of folders
to exclude from the build
-h,--help This help message
-i,--input <arg> Source directory. Default is
current directory
--identity <arg> Sign identity (iOS)
-k,--keep-unused Keep unused resources in archived
output
-ks,--keystore <arg> Deployment keystore used to sign
APKs (Android)
-ksa,--keystore-alias <arg> The alias of the signing key+cert
you want to use (Android)
-ksp,--keystore-pass <arg> Pasword of the deployment
keystore (Android)
-l,--liveupdate <arg> Yes if liveupdate content should
be published
-mp,--mobileprovisioning <arg> mobileprovisioning profile (iOS)
-o,--output <arg> Output directory. Default is
"build/default"
-p,--platform <arg> Platform (when bundling)
-pk,--private-key <arg> DEPRECATED! Private key (Android)
-r,--root <arg> Build root directory. Default is
current directory
--resource-cache-local <arg> Path to local resource cache.
--resource-cache-remote <arg> URL to remote resource cache.
--resource-cache-remote-pass <arg> Password/token to authenticate
access to the remote resource
cache.
--resource-cache-remote-user <arg> Username to authenticate access
to the remote resource cache.
--settings <arg> Path to a game project settings
file. More than one occurrance
are allowed. The settings files
are applied left to right.
--strip-executable Strip the dmengine of debug
symbols (when bundling iOS or
Android)
-tc,--texture-compression <arg> Use texture compression as
specified in texture profiles
-tp,--texture-profiles <arg> Use texture profiles (deprecated)
-u,--auth <arg> User auth token
--use-vanilla-lua Only ships vanilla source code
(i.e. no byte code)
-v,--verbose Verbose output
--variant <arg> Specify debug, release or
headless version of dmengine
(when bundling)
--version Prints the version number to the
output
--with-symbols Generate the symbol file (if
applicable)
Available commands:
clean
: Delete built files in the build directory.
distclean
: Delete all files in the build directory.
build
: Builds all project data. Add the --archive option to build a data archive file ("game.darc" in the build directory).
bundle
: Creates a platform specific application bundle. Bundling requires that a built archive is present (build with the --archive option) and that a target platform is specified (with the --platform option). Bob creates the bundle in the output directory unless a different directory is specified with the --bundle-output option. The bundle is named according to the project name setting in game.project. The --variant specifies which type of executable to build when bundling and it together with the --strip-executable option replaces the --debug option. If no --variant is specified you will get a release version of the engine (stripped of symbols on Android and iOS). Setting --variant to debug and omitting --strip-executable yields the same type of executable as --debug used to do.
resolve
: Resolve all external library dependencies.
Available platforms and architectures:
x86_64-darwin
: macOS 64 bit
x86_64-win32
: Windows 64 bit
x86-win32
: Windows 32 bit
x86_64-linux
: Linux 64 bit
x86_64-ios
: iOS macOS 64 bit (iOS Simulator)
armv7-darwin
: iOS with available 32-bit armv7-darwin and 64-bit arm64-darwin architectures. By default, --architectures argument value is armv7-darwin,arm64-darwin.
armv7-android
: Android with available 32 bit armv7-android and 64 bit arm64-android architectures. By default, --architectures argument value is armv7-android,arm64-android.
js-web
: HTML5 with available js-web and wasm-web architectures. By default, --architectures argument value is js-web,wasm-web.
By default, Bob looks in the current directory for a project to build. If you change the current dir to a Defold project and invoke bob, it builds the data for the project in the default output directory build/default.
$ cd /Applications/Defold-beta/branches/14/4/main
$ java -jar bob.jar
100%
$
You can string commands together to perform a sequence of tasks in one go. The following example resolves libraries, wipes the build directory, builds archive data and bundles a macOS application (named My Game.app):
$ java -jar bob.jar --archive --platform x86-darwin resolve distclean build bundle
100%
$ ls -al build/default/
total 70784
drwxr-xr-x 13 sicher staff 442 1 Dec 10:15 .
drwxr-xr-x 3 sicher staff 102 1 Dec 10:15 ..
drwxr-xr-x 3 sicher staff 102 1 Dec 10:15 My Game.app
drwxr-xr-x 8 sicher staff 272 1 Dec 10:15 builtins
-rw-r--r-- 1 sicher staff 140459 1 Dec 10:15 digest_cache
drwxr-xr-x 4 sicher staff 136 1 Dec 10:15 fonts
-rw-r--r-- 1 sicher staff 35956340 1 Dec 10:15 game.darc
-rw-r--r-- 1 sicher staff 735 1 Dec 10:15 game.projectc
drwxr-xr-x 223 sicher staff 7582 1 Dec 10:15 graphics
drwxr-xr-x 3 sicher staff 102 1 Dec 10:15 input
drwxr-xr-x 20 sicher staff 680 1 Dec 10:15 logic
drwxr-xr-x 27 sicher staff 918 1 Dec 10:15 sound
-rw-r--r-- 1 sicher staff 131926 1 Dec 10:15 state
$