dolfin team mailing list archive

["Johannes Ring" <johannr@xxxxxxxxx>]

On Thu, June 4, 2009 11:11, Ilmar Wilbers wrote:
>
>
> 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?

Yes, it is (using ARGUMENTS.has_key('withFooDir')).

Johannes

> If
> not, the files are going to be generated every time, right?
>
> +1 on alternative 1) from me as well.
>
> ilmar
>