scons_gd/scons/doc/user/sconf.xml

<?xml version='1.0'?>
<!DOCTYPE sconsdoc [
    <!ENTITY % scons SYSTEM "../scons.mod">
    %scons;

    <!ENTITY % builders-mod SYSTEM "../generated/builders.mod">
    %builders-mod;
    <!ENTITY % functions-mod SYSTEM "../generated/functions.mod">
    %functions-mod;
    <!ENTITY % tools-mod SYSTEM "../generated/tools.mod">
    %tools-mod;
    <!ENTITY % variables-mod SYSTEM "../generated/variables.mod">
    %variables-mod;
]>

<chapter id="chap-sconf"
         xmlns="http://www.scons.org/dbxsd/v1.0"
         xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
         xsi:schemaLocation="http://www.scons.org/dbxsd/v1.0 http://www.scons.org/dbxsd/v1.0/scons.xsd">
<title>Multi-Platform Configuration (&Autoconf; Functionality)</title>

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  <para>

  &SCons; has integrated support for build configuration
  similar in style to GNU &Autoconf;, but designed to be
  transparently multi-platform. The configuration system
  can help figure out if external build requirements such
  as system libraries or header files
  are available on the build system.
  This section describes how to use
  this &SCons; feature.
  (See also the &SCons; man page for additional information).

  </para>

  <section>
  <title>&Configure_Contexts;</title>

    <para>

    The basic framework for multi-platform build configuration
    in &SCons; is to create a &configure_context; inside a
    &consenv; by calling the &Configure; function,
    perform the desired checks for
    libraries, functions, header files, etc.,
    and then call the configure context's &Finish; method
    to finish off the configuration:

    </para>

    <sconstruct>
env = Environment()
conf = Configure(env)
# Checks for libraries, header files, etc. go here!
env = conf.Finish()
    </sconstruct>

    <para>

    The &Finish; call is required; if a new context is
    created while a context is active, even in a different
    &consenv;, &scons; will complain and exit.

    </para>

    <para>

    &SCons; provides a number of pre-defined basic checks,
    as well as a mechanism for adding your own custom checks.

    </para>

    <para>

    There are a few possible strategies for failing
    configure checks.  Some checks may be for features without
    which you cannot proceed.  The simple approach here is
    just to exit &SCons; at that point - a number of the
    examples in this chapter are coded that way.  If there
    are multiple hard requirements, however, it may be
    friendlier to the user to set a flag in case of any
    fails of hard requirements and accumulate a record of them,
    so that on the completion of the &configure_context; they can
    all be listed prior to failing the build - as it can be frustrating
    to have to iterate through the setup, fixing one new
    requirement each iteration.  Other checks may be for
    features which you can do without, and here the strategy
    will usually be to set a construction variable which the
    rest of the build can examine for its absence/presence,
    or to set particular compiler flags, library lists, etc.
    as appropriate for the circumstances, so you can proceed
    with the build appropriately based on available features.

    </para>


    <para>

    Note that &SCons; uses its own dependency
    mechanism to determine when a check
    needs to be run--that is,
    &SCons; does not run the checks
    every time it is invoked,
    but caches the values returned by previous checks
    and uses the cached values unless something has changed.
    This saves a tremendous amount
    of developer time while working on
    cross-platform build issues.

    </para>

    <para>

    The next sections describe
    the basic checks that &SCons; supports,
    as well as how to add your own custom checks.

    </para>

  </section>

  <section>
  <title>Checking for the Existence of Header Files</title>

    <para>

    Testing the existence of a header file
    requires knowing what language the header file is.
    This information is supplied in the <varname>language</varname>
    keyword parameter to the &CheckHeader; method.
    Since &scons; grew up in a world of C/C++ code,
    a &configure_context; also has a &CheckCHeader; method
    that specifically checks for the existence of a C header file:

    </para>

    <sconstruct>
env = Environment()
conf = Configure(env)
if not conf.CheckCHeader('math.h'):
    print('Math.h must be installed!')
    Exit(1)
if conf.CheckCHeader('foo.h'):
    conf.env.Append(CPPDEFINES='HAS_FOO_H')
env = conf.Finish()
    </sconstruct>

    <para>

    As shown in the example, depending on the circumstances
    you can choose to terminate
    the build if a given header file doesn't exist,
    or you can modify the construction environment
    based on the presence or absence of a header file
    (the same applies to any other check).  If there are a
    many elements to check for, it may be friendlier for
    the user if you do not terminate on the first failure,
    but track the problems found until the end and report on
    all of them, that way the user does not have to iterate
    multiple times, each time finding one new dependency that
    needs to be installed.

    </para>

    <para>

    If you need to check for the existence
    a C++ header file,
    use the &CheckCXXHeader; method:

    </para>

    <sconstruct>
env = Environment()
conf = Configure(env)
if not conf.CheckCXXHeader('vector.h'):
    print('vector.h must be installed!')
    Exit(1)
env = conf.Finish()
    </sconstruct>

  </section>

  <section>
  <title>Checking for the Availability of a Function</title>

    <para>

    Check for the availability of a specific function
    using the &CheckFunc; method:

    </para>

    <sconstruct>
env = Environment()
conf = Configure(env)
if not conf.CheckFunc('strcpy'):
    print('Did not find strcpy(), using local version')
    conf.env.Append(CPPDEFINES=('strcpy','my_local_strcpy'))
env = conf.Finish()
    </sconstruct>

  </section>

  <section>
  <title>Checking for the Availability of a Library</title>

    <para>

    Check for the availability of a library
    using the &CheckLib; method.
    You only specify the base part of the library name,
    you don't need to add a <literal>lib</literal>
    prefix or a <literal>.a</literal> or <literal>.lib</literal> suffix:

    </para>

    <sconstruct>
env = Environment()
conf = Configure(env)
if not conf.CheckLib('m'):
    print('Did not find libm.a or m.lib, exiting!')
    Exit(1)
env = conf.Finish()
    </sconstruct>

    <para>

    Because the ability to use a library successfully
    often depends on having access to a header file
    that describes the library's interface,
    you can check for a library
    <emphasis>and</emphasis> a header file
    at the same time by using the
    &CheckLibWithHeader; method:

    </para>

    <sconstruct>
env = Environment()
conf = Configure(env)
if not conf.CheckLibWithHeader('m', 'math.h', language='c'):
    print('Did not find libm.a or m.lib, exiting!')
    Exit(1)
env = conf.Finish()
    </sconstruct>

    <para>

    This is essentially shorthand for
    separate calls to the &CheckHeader; and &CheckLib;
    functions.

    </para>

  </section>

  <section>
  <title>Checking for the Availability of a &typedef;</title>

    <para>

    Check for the availability of a &typedef;
    by using the &CheckType; method:

    </para>

    <sconstruct>
env = Environment()
conf = Configure(env)
if not conf.CheckType('off_t'):
    print('Did not find off_t typedef, assuming int')
    conf.env.Append(CPPDEFINES=('off_t','int'))
env = conf.Finish()
    </sconstruct>

    <para>

    You can also add a string that will be
    placed at the beginning of the test file
    that will be used to check for the &typedef;.
    This provide a way to specify
    files that must be included to find the &typedef;:

    </para>

    <sconstruct>
env = Environment()
conf = Configure(env)
if not conf.CheckType('off_t', '#include &lt;sys/types.h&gt;\n'):
    print('Did not find off_t typedef, assuming int')
    conf.env.Append(CPPDEFINES=('off_t','int'))
env = conf.Finish()
    </sconstruct>

  </section>
  <section>
  <title>Checking the size of a datatype</title>
    <para>
    Check the size of a datatype by using the &CheckTypeSize; method:
    </para>

    <sconstruct>
env = Environment()
conf = Configure(env)
int_size = conf.CheckTypeSize('unsigned int')
print('sizeof unsigned int is', int_size)
env = conf.Finish()
    </sconstruct>

    <screen>
% <userinput>scons -Q</userinput>
sizeof unsigned int is 4
scons: `.' is up to date.
    </screen>
  </section>

  <section>
  <title>Checking for the Presence of a program</title>

    <para>

    Check for the presence of a program
    by using the &CheckProg; method:

    </para>

    <sconstruct>
env = Environment()
conf = Configure(env)
if not conf.CheckProg('foobar'):
  print('Unable to find the program foobar on the system')
  Exit(1)
env = conf.Finish()
    </sconstruct>

  </section>
  <section>
  <title>Extending &SCons;: Adding Your Own Custom Checks</title>

    <para>

    A custom check is a Python function
    that checks for a certain condition to exist
    on the running system,
    usually using methods that &SCons;
    supplies to take care of the details
    of checking whether a compilation succeeds,
    a link succeeds,
    a program is runnable,
    etc.
    A simple custom check for the existence of
    a specific library might look as follows:

    </para>

    <sconstruct>
mylib_test_source_file = """
#include &lt;mylib.h&gt;
int main(int argc, char **argv)
{
    MyLibrary mylib(argc, argv);
    return 0;
}
"""

def CheckMyLibrary(context):
    context.Message('Checking for MyLibrary...')
    result = context.TryLink(mylib_test_source_file, '.c')
    context.Result(result)
    return result
    </sconstruct>

    <para>

    The &Message; and &Result; methods
    should typically begin and end a custom check to
    let the user know what's going on:
    the &Message; call prints the
    specified message (with no trailing newline)
    and the &Result; call prints
    <literal>yes</literal> if the check succeeds and
    <literal>no</literal> if it doesn't.
    The &TryLink; method
    actually tests for whether the
    specified program text
    will successfully link.

    </para>

    <para>

    (Note that a custom check can modify
    its check based on any arguments you
    choose to pass it,
    or by using or modifying the configure context environment
    in the <literal>context.env</literal> attribute.)

    </para>

    <para>

    This custom check function is
    then attached to the &configure_context;
    by passing a dictionary
    to the &Configure; call
    that maps a name of the check
    to the underlying function:

    </para>

    <sconstruct>
env = Environment()
conf = Configure(env, custom_tests={'CheckMyLibrary': CheckMyLibrary})
    </sconstruct>

    <para>

    You'll typically want to make
    the check and the function name the same,
    as we've done here,
    to avoid potential confusion.

    </para>

    <para>

    We can then put these pieces together
    and actually call the <literal>CheckMyLibrary</literal> check
    as follows:

    </para>

    <sconstruct>
mylib_test_source_file = """
#include &lt;mylib.h&gt;
int main(int argc, char **argv)
{
    MyLibrary mylib(argc, argv);
    return 0;
}
"""

def CheckMyLibrary(context):
    context.Message('Checking for MyLibrary... ')
    result = context.TryLink(mylib_test_source_file, '.c')
    context.Result(result)
    return result

env = Environment()
conf = Configure(env, custom_tests={'CheckMyLibrary': CheckMyLibrary})
if not conf.CheckMyLibrary():
    print('MyLibrary is not installed!')
    Exit(1)
env = conf.Finish()

# We would then add actual calls like Program() to build
# something using the "env" construction environment.
    </sconstruct>

    <para>

    If MyLibrary is not installed on the system,
    the output will look like:

    </para>

    <screen>
% <userinput>scons</userinput>
scons: Reading SConscript file ...
Checking for MyLibrary... no
MyLibrary is not installed!
    </screen>

    <para>

    If MyLibrary is installed,
    the output will look like:

    </para>

    <screen>
% <userinput>scons</userinput>
scons: Reading SConscript file ...
Checking for MyLibrary... yes
scons: done reading SConscript
scons: Building targets ...
    .
    .
    .
    </screen>

  </section>

  <section>
  <title>Not Configuring When Cleaning Targets</title>

    <para>

    Using multi-platform configuration
    as described in the previous sections
    will run the configuration commands
    even when invoking
    <userinput>scons -c</userinput>
    to clean targets:

    </para>

    <screen>
% <userinput>scons -Q -c</userinput>
Checking for MyLibrary... yes
Removed foo.o
Removed foo
    </screen>

    <para>

    Although running the platform checks
    when removing targets doesn't hurt anything,
    it's usually unnecessary.
    You can avoid this by using the
    &GetOption; method to
    check whether the <option>-c</option> (clean)
    option has been invoked on the command line:

    </para>

    <sconstruct>
env = Environment()
if not env.GetOption('clean'):
    conf = Configure(env, custom_tests={'CheckMyLibrary': CheckMyLibrary})
    if not conf.CheckMyLibrary():
        print('MyLibrary is not installed!')
        Exit(1)
    env = conf.Finish()
    </sconstruct>

    <screen>
% <userinput>scons -Q -c</userinput>
Removed foo.o
Removed foo
    </screen>

  </section>

  <!--

  <section>
  <title>Controlling Configuration:  the &config; Option</title>

    <para>

    XXX -D, -u and -U

    </para>

  </section>

  -->

</chapter>