Guide to VAX DEC/Module Management System

This manual serves as both a tutorial and reference for the VAX DEC/Module Management System (MMS), a utility designed to automate and simplify the building and rebuilding of software systems. It details how MMS manages file dependencies, tracks changes, and intelligently rebuilds only the necessary parts of a system, thereby saving processing time and storage.

The document introduces core MMS concepts, focusing on description files which define system components (source files, compilers, libraries) and their logical dependencies. Key elements of description files include targets (files to be built), sources (files used to create targets), action lines (commands for updating targets), built-in rules (default actions based on file types), macros (reusable character strings), and directives (instructions for processing the description file).

The guide covers various system-building scenarios, from single to multiple source systems, multi-language projects, systems with included files, multiple targets, and object libraries. It also explores advanced techniques such as double colon dependencies, invoking MMS from command procedures, gathering statistics, parallel processing, and handling multiple outputs. Additionally, it explains how MMS interacts with different library types, including VMS, VAX DEC/Code Management System (CMS), VAX FMS, VAX Common Data Dictionary (CDD/Plus), and VAX Source Code Analyzer (SCA) libraries. MMS is patterned after the UNIX make utility, with specific comparisons detailed within the document.