Dear CMake developers, any thoughts on the fix? :)
Best regards, Stefan Kislinskiy ________________________________________ Von: cmake-developers [cmake-developers-boun...@cmake.org] im Auftrag von Kislinskiy, Stefan [s.kislins...@dkfz-heidelberg.de] Gesendet: Freitag, 21. August 2015 23:56 An: David Cole; James Johnston Cc: cmake-developers@cmake.org Betreff: Re: [cmake-developers] ExternalProject: Use native paths as substitute for directory tokens What do you think about the new patch I attached to this mail? It adds an option NATIVE_DIR_TOKENS to ExternalProjects_Add. I also attached a CMake script file which tests/shows this feature. Stefan Kislinskiy ________________________________________ Von: cmake-developers [cmake-developers-boun...@cmake.org] im Auftrag von David Cole via cmake-developers [cmake-developers@cmake.org] Gesendet: Donnerstag, 20. August 2015 23:20 An: James Johnston Cc: cmake-developers@cmake.org Betreff: Re: [cmake-developers] ExternalProject: Use native paths as substitute for directory tokens It's exactly what I am concerned about: You're asking to change the behavior of something for EVERYONE to solve a problem which you have encountered. If you change it the way you have proposed, you will cause problems for others. It has worked the way it is now since ExternalProject_Add was introduced in CMake 2.8. Changing it unconditionally the way you propose is simply not feasible for backwards compatibility. I think commands that take native paths ought NOT to use the <*_DIR> replacement values, and instead, ought to pass in variables that contain the native paths in the first place. David C. On Thu, Aug 20, 2015 at 2:58 PM, James Johnston <johnstonj.pub...@codenest.com> wrote: > Hi, > > Funny you are mailing the list about this, since I just ran into this same > issue today building something totally different from Boost... In this case > it's a build tool that thinks the "/U" in "C:/Users" is a new command line > argument, that isn't recognized - and then the subsequent "s" also ends up > unrecognized... and it all fails... And it has nothing to do with the > working directory, so _Add_Step(WORKING_DIRECTORY) isn't a possible > workaround for me. > > I think the issue with globally making this change to the existing tokens is > that there could be some external tool/program that is EXPECTING to get CMake > paths, not native paths. Who knows? I am guessing that is what David Cole > was concerned about. > > Maybe the right answer is to introduce some NEW tokens while leaving the > behavior of the old ones unchanged. E.g. <BINARY_DIR_NATIVE> etc. It would > be good if the patch updates the documentation of ExternalProject and clearly > states the path format of <BINARY_DIR> vs <BINARY_DIR_NATIVE>. Then the user > can pick whichever one suits them best, depending on the tool being invoked. > > Furthermore, sometimes <BINARY_DIR_NATIVE> still needs to be replaced with a > CMake path, not native path. For example, if the token is being found in a > property like WORKING_DIRECTORY that eventually gets passed to > add_custom_command(WORKING_DIRECTORY) then I'm guessing still has to be a > CMake path. I am guessing this is what David Cole was also concerned about. > > I still think your original method of building Boost is a bit unusual and > would be better served by _Add_Step with a custom working directory - because > that's the publicly documented/standard way of changing the working > directory, but that is up to you. :) > > Best regards, > > James Johnston > > > ---- On Thu, 20 Aug 2015 14:37:08 +0000 Stefan Kislinskiy > <s.kislins...@dkfz-heidelberg.de> wrote ---- > > > Hi, > > > > thank you for our suggestions. I am aware that I can solve my example > differently and that it might look not directly connected the proposal, but > well, it is an example just to show a single case and why it matters. :) I > did not want to discuss the example itself. Working around here would just > resolve a symptom. > > > > My point is the overall problem that would persist: A big part of > ExternalProject is to issue commands for predefined and custom steps. Those > commands are supposed to be executed by the shell/command line. According to > the documentation and the source code of ExternalProject, directory tokens > are mainly supposed to be replaced in commands. It is my understanding, that > it is a bug, if CMake isn't able to assemble these commands correctly. This > would include usage of the correct path style of the OS for shell/command > line commands. As directory tokens are replaced internally right before a > shell/command line command is assembled, I can't see why this would be kind > of "API-breaking". You cannot interfere in your CMake code with these > internal replacements. > > > > Therefore I would still prefer my solution as it is pretty simple without > adding even more features to ExternalProject and in my opinion without > breaking code in the wild. It is a true bug fix instead of a feature request > for working directories, which is a different topic that just coincidentally > arised because of my specific example I guess. The features you described > wouldn't fix the actual bug. > > > > As you were not sure if my approach would even fix my problems: It does of > course and this is what I am currently doing and what I tested extensively > before creating the patch. :) Regarding your quote from the > add_custom_command documentation I can tell you that this is how things are > currently done in ExternalProject and always were as far as I know, for > example (from ExternalProject.cmake): > > > > add_custom_command( > > OUTPUT ${stamp_file} > > BYPRODUCTS ${byproducts} > > COMMENT ${comment} > > COMMAND ${command} > > COMMAND ${touch} > > DEPENDS ${depends} > > WORKING_DIRECTORY ${work_dir} > > VERBATIM > > ) > > > > Best regards, > > Stefan > > > > > > -----Original Message----- > > From: cmake-developers [mailto:cmake-developers-boun...@cmake.org] On > Behalf Of James Johnston > > Sent: Donnerstag, 20. August 2015 15:37 > > To: cmake-developers@cmake.org > > Subject: Re: [cmake-developers] ExternalProject: Use native paths as > substitute for directory tokens > > > > > -----Original Message----- > > > From: cmake-developers [mailto:cmake-developers-boun...@cmake.org] > > > On Behalf Of Kislinskiy, Stefan > > > Sent: Thursday, August 20, 2015 09:02 > > > To: David Cole > > > Cc: cmake-developers@cmake.org > > > Subject: Re: [cmake-developers] ExternalProject: Use native paths as > > > substitute for directory tokens > > > > > > Hi David, > > > > > > Example excerpt (it is not possible to change the working directory > > > for > > the > > > CONFIGURE_COMMAND as it is fixed to the BUILD_DIR, which might not be > > > sufficient): > > > > This doesn't really directly have to do with your proposal, but what if an > option was added to change the working dir of the CONFIGURE_COMMAND? E.g. > > WORKING_DIRECTORY_CONFIGURE. And suppose you'd have it recognize the > various tags like <SOURCE_DIR>, etc. This might be useful to add to other > steps as well, and would be more portable than your solution which is using > cmd.exe-specific commands. You'd want to audit for any resulting breakage > (e.g. does ExternalProject make assumptions that the working directory of > CONFIGURE is always the binary dir? - e.g. a relative path being used > somewhere. And probably only allow specification of > WORKING_DIRECTORY_CONFIGURE if a CONFIGURE_COMMAND was also specified, as the > built-in commands certainly assume the default working dir.) > > > > In your situation though, I'm not sure it's strictly needed. From your > sample, it looks like you're building boost. In your case what if you: > > > > * Use ExternalProject_Add_Step to bootstrap. You can specify a > WORKING_DIRECTORY here. Note one problem: you can't do out of source build > of b2, which breaks user expectations. > > * Then use ExternalProject_Add_Step to build Boost. > > > > Yes, using _Add_Step is somewhat of a workaround, but in this case, I've > found it wasn't much of a burden at all. In fact the only case I can think > of where it WOULD be a burden would be if the configure step is CMake. But > then you wouldn't need to change the working directory; changing it would > break CMake. In practice nobody will want to change WORKING_DIRECTORY unless > it's a custom command and then it's easy to use _Add_Step anyway. > > That said, it might still be considered a little undesired and so maybe my > proposal above would be a better way to handle it. > > > > Corrections from maintainers and others on the above commentary are > welcome... > > > > > > > > set(bootstrap_cmd "<SOURCE_DIR>/bootstrap${shell_ext}" > > > ${bootstrap_toolset}) > > > > > > if(WIN32) > > > set(bootstrap_cmd pushd "<SOURCE_DIR>" COMMAND ${bootstrap_cmd} > > > COMMAND popd) > > > endif() > > > > > > ExternalProject_Add(Boost > > > ... > > > CONFIGURE_COMMAND ${bootstrap_cmd} > > > ... > > > ) > > > > From add_custom_command: "If more than one COMMAND is specified they will > be executed in order, but not necessarily composed into a stateful shell or > batch script." > > > > So I am not sure your approach will work for you even if you fix the issue > with path slashes. > > > > James > > > > -- > > Powered by www.kitware.com > > Please keep messages on-topic and check the CMake FAQ at: > http://www.cmake.org/Wiki/CMake_FAQ > > Kitware offers various services to support the CMake community. For more > information on each offering, please visit: > > CMake Support: http://cmake.org/cmake/help/support.html > CMake Consulting: http://cmake.org/cmake/help/consulting.html > CMake Training Courses: http://cmake.org/cmake/help/training.html > > Visit other Kitware open-source projects at > http://www.kitware.com/opensource/opensource.html > > Follow this link to subscribe/unsubscribe: > http://public.kitware.com/mailman/listinfo/cmake-developers -- Powered by www.kitware.com Please keep messages on-topic and check the CMake FAQ at: http://www.cmake.org/Wiki/CMake_FAQ Kitware offers various services to support the CMake community. For more information on each offering, please visit: CMake Support: http://cmake.org/cmake/help/support.html CMake Consulting: http://cmake.org/cmake/help/consulting.html CMake Training Courses: http://cmake.org/cmake/help/training.html Visit other Kitware open-source projects at http://www.kitware.com/opensource/opensource.html Follow this link to subscribe/unsubscribe: http://public.kitware.com/mailman/listinfo/cmake-developers -- Powered by www.kitware.com Please keep messages on-topic and check the CMake FAQ at: http://www.cmake.org/Wiki/CMake_FAQ Kitware offers various services to support the CMake community. For more information on each offering, please visit: CMake Support: http://cmake.org/cmake/help/support.html CMake Consulting: http://cmake.org/cmake/help/consulting.html CMake Training Courses: http://cmake.org/cmake/help/training.html Visit other Kitware open-source projects at http://www.kitware.com/opensource/opensource.html Follow this link to subscribe/unsubscribe: http://public.kitware.com/mailman/listinfo/cmake-developers