Building vs. Compiling (Java)
Compiling is the act of turning source code into object code.
Linking is the act of combining object code with libraries into a raw executable.
Building is the sequence composed of compiling and linking, with possibly other tasks such as installer creation.
Many compilers handle the linking step automatically after compiling source code.
What is the difference between compile code and executable code?
The "Build" is a process that covers all the steps required to create a "deliverable" of your software. In the Java world, this typically includes:
- Generating sources (sometimes).
- Compiling sources.
- Compiling test sources.
- Executing tests (unit tests, integration tests, etc).
- Packaging (into jar, war, ejb-jar, ear).
- Running health checks (static analyzers like Checkstyle, Findbugs, PMD, test coverage, etc).
- Generating reports.
So as you can see, compiling is only a (small) part of the build (and the best practice is to fully automate all the steps with tools like Maven or Ant and to run the build continuously which is known as Continuous Integration).
Some of the answers I see here are out-of-context and make more sense if this were a C/C++ question.
Short version:
- "Compiling" is turning .java files into .class files
- 'Building" is a generic term that includes compiling and other tasks.
"Building" is a generic term describes the overall process which includes compiling. For example, the build process might include tools which generate Java code or documentation files.
Often there will be additional phases, like "package" which takes all your .class files and puts them into a .jar, or "clean" which cleans out .class files and temporary directories.