dolfin team mailing list archive

[Ilmar Wilbers <ilmarw@xxxxxxxxx>]

Johannes Ring wrote:
> 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?
>   
Do you mean that this only would be done when specified on the command 
line, but not if cached? Is it possible to distinguish those two? If 
not, the files are going to be generated every time, right?

+1 on alternative 1) from me as well.

ilmar