Compiling code with .d extension using rebuild and drebuild?

Question

I wanted to build AsciiAsciiRevolution so I checked it out and typed make

$ make
rebuild AAR.d -oqobj -I~/tango/ -Iycurses/modules -L-lncursesw -dc=ldc-posix-tango -version=Tango
/bin/sh: 1: rebuild: not found

Huh? What's rebuild?

$ ls
AAR.d                  asciiSprite.d   graphics       levels.txt  README          util
animatedAsciiSprite.d  backupDancer.d  input.d        Makefile    selectScreen.d  warningBar.d
arrow_charts           dancingMan.d    level.d        music       sounds          ycurses
arrowSection.d         dataScore.d     levelScreen.d  narwhal.d   types.d

What the... is this that mysterious D Language I've heard about?

$ cat Makefile
all:
    rebuild AAR.d -oqobj -I~/tango/ -Iycurses/modules -L-lncursesw -dc=ldc-posix-tango -version=Tango

james:
    drebuild AAR.d -oqobj -I/usr/include/d/ldc -Iycurses/modules -L-lncursesw -dc=ldc-posix-tango -version=Tango -I~/repos/tango

clean:
    rm AAR obj/*.o

Okay, I just have to install rebuild and drebuild!

$ sudo apt-get install rebuild drebuild
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree       
Reading state information... Done
E: Unable to locate package rebuild

At this point I tried apt-cache search rebuild, but nothing there seemed related to dlang. What is rebuild, and how can I install it using apt-get or yum?

Answer 1

rebuild is a rather old build tool for D. It is part of DSSS (D Shared Source System), which was an early attempt at a D package manager. You can find more information on the project's page on Dsource: http://www.dsource.org/projects/dsss

These tools have not been maintained for a long time and today are rarely used. They have been replaced by rdmd (included with the compiler) for the build tool, and dub as the package manager.