Project Hierarchies

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## Project Hierarchies

So far we've only considered examples with one project (i.e. with one `Jamfile`). A typical large software project would be composed of sub-projects organized into a tree. The top of the tree is called the project root. Besides a `Jamfile`, the project root directory contains a file called `project-root.jam`. Every other `Jamfile` in the project has a single parent project, rooted in the nearest parent directory containing a `Jamfile`. For example, in the following directory layout:

    top/
      |
      +-- Jamfile
      +-- project-root.jam
      |
      +-- src/
      |    |
      |    +-- Jamfile
      |    `-- app.cpp
      |
      `-- util/
           |
           +-- foo/
           .    |
           .    +-- Jamfile
           .    `-- bar.cpp

the project root is `top/`. Because there is no `Jamfile` in `top/util/`, the projects in `top/src/` and `top/util/foo/` are immediate children of the root project.

Projects inherit all attributes (such as requirements) from their parents. Inherited requirements are combined with any requirements specified by the sub-project. For example, if `top/Jamfile` has

    <include>/home/ghost/local

in its requirements, then all of its sub-projects will have it in their requirements, too. Of course, any project can add additional includes. [3] More details can be found in the section on projects.

Invoking bjam without explicitly specifying any targets on the command-line builds the project rooted in the current directory. Building a project does not automatically cause its sub-projects to be built unless the parent project's `Jamfile` explicitly requests it. In our example, `top/Jamfile` might contain:

    build-project src ;

which would cause the project in `top/src/` to be built whenever the project in `top/` is built. However, targets in `top/util/foo/` will be built only if they are needed by targets in `top/` or `top/src/`.

[3] the section called “Feature Attributes”