# gittup/tup

Tup is a file-based build system.

Repository: https://github.com/gittup/tup
Canonical: https://ross.abutalabs.com/products/tup
Homepage: http://gittup.org/tup/
Language: C
License: GPL-2.0
License Family: copyleft
Last push: 2026-07-30T05:17:28+00:00

## Health v2 (maintenance only)
Score: 75/100 (v2, computed 2026-09-03T02:20:16.233290+00:00)
- activity 95, release rhythm 35, longevity 100
- inputs: {"age_days": 5603, "days_push": 34, "days_rel": null, "gap_med": null, "n_releases_24m": 0}
- flags: no_releases
- formula: round(0.45*activity + 0.35*rhythm + 0.20*longevity); archived -> min(score, 10)

## Adoption (not part of the score)
Stars 1262, forks 146 (observed 2026-08-28T04:04:10.302934+00:00)

## What it is
Tup is a file-based build system that takes a list of file changes and a directed acyclic graph (DAG) of dependencies, then executes only the commands needed to update dependent files. Written in C and running on Linux, macOS, and Windows, it uses specialized build algorithms to keep incremental rebuild overhead extremely low.

## Use cases
- incremental build system that only rebuilds what changed
- faster alternative to make for large projects
- automatically detect and track file dependencies in builds
- rebuild outputs when source files change
- cross-platform build tool for linux, osx, and windows
- manage build steps as a DAG of commands

## When to choose
- You want very fast incremental rebuilds that avoid unnecessary work
- Your project benefits from automatic dependency discovery via filesystem monitoring rather than manually declared rules
- You need one build system that works consistently on Linux, macOS, and Windows

## When to avoid
- You need a build tool with a large ecosystem, extensive IDE integration, or many third-party plugins
- Your team is already invested in Make/CMake conventions and existing build scripts
- On macOS you cannot install or manage the required FUSE implementation

## Facets
- artifact type: cli-tool
- maturity: stable
- function: build-tool, cli, developer-tools
- domain: developer-tools
- platform: windows, cli
- tags: build-system, incremental-build, dag, dependency-tracking, make-alternative, fuse, c, filesystem-monitoring, command-line, automation, algorithms, linux, macos

## Member repositories
- gittup/tup (main) score 75

## Provenance
- Observed fields: from GitHub, fetched 2026-08-28T04:04:10.302934+00:00.
- Health v2: computed from the inputs above; adoption is never an input.
- Inferred fields (summary, facets, guidance): AI-extracted, prompt v1, taxonomy v1, on 2026-08-30T05:04:14.241158+00:00, confidence not recorded.
  - readme: https://github.com/gittup/tup (fetched 2026-08-28T04:04:10.302934+00:00, sha 4976a6fd29bb)
  - homepage: http://gittup.org/tup/ (fetched 2026-08-29T12:16:28.385769+00:00, sha fd315614dee4)
  - site_page: https://gittup.org/tup/releases (fetched 2026-08-29T12:16:28.388385+00:00, sha 4f3c3b48de8e)
- Data as of 2026-08-30T08:39:29.467469+00:00.