Unless disabled with --without-tools configuration option, files in tools/ directory are automatically build and installed to ${PREFIX}/bin folder.
There are two ways to add new tools, depending on their complexity:
For simple tools that have a single translation unit, the .cpp file can be directly put in tools/ folder and it will be automatically compiled on the next run of ./waf. Name of the compiled binary will be determined by the base name of the .cpp file. For example, tools/foo.cpp will be compiled into binary foo in <build>/bin/ folder:
echo "int main() { return 0; }" > tools/foo.cpp
./waf
# ... Compiling tools/foo.cpp
# ... Linking build/bin/foo
sudo ./waf install
# ... install /usr/local/bin/foo (from build/bin/foo)
# To run the tool
/usr/local/bin/foo
For more complex tools that contain multiple translation units, one can use the following directory structure:
Create a directory under tools/ folder (e.g., tools/bar). The name of this directory will determine the name of the compiled binary (<build>/bin/bar)
Place any number of translation units (e.g., tools/bar/a.cpp, tools/bar/b.cpp, ...) in this directory. All .cpp files in this directory will be compiled and linked together to produce the binary of the tool. One of the .cpp files should contain the main() function.
For example:
mkdir tools/bar
echo "int bar(); int main() { return bar(); }" > tools/bar/a.cpp
echo "int bar() { return 10; } " > tools/bar/b.cpp
./waf
# ... Compiling tools/bar/a.cpp
# ... Compiling tools/bar/b.cpp
# ... Linking build/bin/bar
sudo ./waf install
# ... install /usr/local/bin/bar (from build/bin/bar)
# To run the tool
/usr/local/bin/bar