ct-list-backends¶

List available build backends¶

Author:: drgeoffathome@gmail.com
Date:: 2026-03-31
Version:: 10.0.6
Manual section:: 1
Manual group:: developers

SYNOPSIS¶

ct-list-backends [–style STYLE] [–all]

DESCRIPTION¶

ct-list-backends lists the build system backends that compiletools supports. Each backend generates native build files for a different build system (Make, Ninja, CMake, Bazel, or the builtin Shake backend).

Other ct-* applications use --backend=<name> to select which build system to use. ct-list-backends helps you discover which backends are available and whether their required external tools are installed.

OPTIONS¶

--style STYLE

Output formatting style. Choices:

pretty - Human-readable table with build file names and tool availability (default)
flat - Space-separated list on one line
filelist - One backend per line, no headers

–all / –no-all: List all backends, including those whose build tool is not installed. Default: off (show only available backends).

EXAMPLES¶

List available backends (default):

$ ct-list-backends
Backend    Build file         Tool               Available
-----------------------------------------------------------
cmake      CMakeLists.txt     cmake              yes
make       Makefile           make               yes
ninja      build.ninja        ninja              yes
shake      .ct-traces.json    (builtin)          yes

List all backends, including unavailable ones:

ct-list-backends --all

Get backends as a simple list:

ct-list-backends --style=filelist