dolfin team mailing list archive

["Johannes Ring" <johannr@xxxxxxxxx>]

On Thu, June 4, 2009 10:46, Johan Hake wrote:
> [snip]
>
>> I don't have a problem with pkg-config being _the_ system,
>> but the command line interface does not give that impression.
>> It cannot be required that the user knows scons internals or takes
>> even a casual glance at the implementation of the build system...
>
> True.
>
>> In particular, there is no mention of pkg-config in scons --help,
>> README, or INSTALL, and the help messages do not suggest
>> that they may be ignored if the wind comes from the north:
>> withPetscDir: Specify path to PETSc ( /path/to/withPetscDir )
>
> Also true.
>
>> If scons makes it hard to design the interface freely, why not
>> have a separate script to generate selected pkg-config files?
>> I don't care more for "scons configFoo" than
>> "configure withFooDir=/here/I/am withBarDir=/here/I/am".
>>
>> Whatever solution is chosen, it must be possible to say
>> explicitly that "hey, I want to use foolib from /bar/foolibdir,
>> please make me a pkg-config file for that build and ignore
>> any global defaults that you find".
>
> Ok, I can discuss it with Johannes and see if there are any good solution
> for
> this.
>
> Suggestion 1:
> Trigger construction of a specific pkg-config file during compilation.
>
>   scons configFoo configBar
>
> These options will come in addition to other options. Maybe more explicit
> towards mentioning pkg-config
>
>   scons generatePkgConfigFoo generatePkgConfigBar?
>
> Suggestion 2:
> Put the generation of pkg-config files into a standalone script.
>
>   generate-pkg-config Foo Bar
>
> Instead of generate-pkg-config-file we could for example have:
>
>   dolfin-config, config?
>
> I think 1 integrates better with the present system.
>
> Any comments from the others?

I like better suggestion 1, however, it should be possible to generate new
pkg-config files whenever withFooDir=/path/to/foo is specified on the
command line. Isn't that better?

Johannes