Add an option for explicit BYPRODUCTS of custom commands (#14963)

A common idiom in CMake-based build systems is to have custom commands
that generate files not listed explicitly as outputs so that these
files do not have to be newer than the inputs.  The file modification
times of such "byproducts" are updated only when their content changes.
Then other build rules can depend on the byproducts explicitly so that
their dependents rebuild when the content of the original byproducts
really does change.

This "undeclared byproduct" approach is necessary for Makefile, VS, and
Xcode build tools because if a byproduct were listed as an output of a
rule then the rule would always rerun when the input is newer than the
byproduct but the byproduct may never be updated.

Ninja solves this problem by offering a 'restat' feature to check
whether an output was really modified after running a rule and tracking
the fact that it is up to date separately from its timestamp.  However,
Ninja also stats all dependencies up front and will only restat files
that are listed as outputs of rules with the 'restat' option enabled.
Therefore an undeclared byproduct that does not exist at the start of
the build will be considered missing and the build will fail even if
other dependencies would cause the byproduct to be available before its
dependents build.

CMake works around this limitation by adding 'phony' build rules for
custom command dependencies in the build tree that do not have any
explicit specification of what produces them.  This is not optimal
because it prevents Ninja from reporting an error when an input to a
rule really is missing.  A better approach is to allow projects to
explicitly specify the byproducts of their custom commands so that no
phony rules are needed for them.  In order to work with the non-Ninja
generators, the byproducts must be known separately from the outputs.

Add a new "BYPRODUCTS" option to the add_custom_command and
add_custom_target commands to specify byproducts explicitly.  Teach the
Ninja generator to specify byproducts as outputs of the custom commands.
In the case of POST_BUILD, PRE_LINK, and PRE_BUILD events on targets
that link, the byproducts must be specified as outputs of the link rule
that runs the commands.  Activate 'restat' for such rules so that Ninja
knows it needs to check the byproducts, but not for link rules that have
no byproducts.

1 files changed, 21 insertions, 5 deletions

diff --git a/Source/cmAddCustomCommandCommand.cxx b/Source/cmAddCustomCommandCommand.cxx
index 410f978..818b910 100644
--- a/Source/cmAddCustomCommandCommand.cxx
+++ b/Source/cmAddCustomCommandCommand.cxx
@@ -32,7 +32,7 @@ bool cmAddCustomCommandCommand
   std::string source, target, main_dependency, working;
   std::string comment_buffer;
   const char* comment = 0;
-  std::vector<std::string> depends, outputs, output;
+  std::vector<std::string> depends, outputs, output, byproducts;
   bool verbatim = false;
   bool append = false;
   bool uses_terminal = false;
@@ -57,6 +57,7 @@ bool cmAddCustomCommandCommand
     doing_main_dependency,
     doing_output,
     doing_outputs,
+    doing_byproducts,
     doing_comment,
     doing_working_directory,
     doing_nothing
@@ -127,6 +128,10 @@ bool cmAddCustomCommandCommand
       {
       doing = doing_output;
       }
+    else if (copy == "BYPRODUCTS")
+      {
+      doing = doing_byproducts;
+      }
     else if (copy == "WORKING_DIRECTORY")
       {
       doing = doing_working_directory;
@@ -150,6 +155,7 @@ bool cmAddCustomCommandCommand
         {
         case doing_output:
         case doing_outputs:
+        case doing_byproducts:
           if (!cmSystemTools::FileIsFullPath(copy.c_str()))
             {
             // This is an output to be generated, so it should be
@@ -233,6 +239,9 @@ bool cmAddCustomCommandCommand
          case doing_outputs:
            outputs.push_back(filename);
            break;
+         case doing_byproducts:
+           byproducts.push_back(filename);
+           break;
          case doing_comment:
            comment_buffer = copy;
            comment = comment_buffer.c_str();
@@ -272,7 +281,9 @@ bool cmAddCustomCommandCommand
     }
 
   // Make sure the output names and locations are safe.
-  if(!this->CheckOutputs(output) || !this->CheckOutputs(outputs))
+  if(!this->CheckOutputs(output) ||
+     !this->CheckOutputs(outputs) ||
+     !this->CheckOutputs(byproducts))
     {
     return false;
     }
@@ -314,7 +325,7 @@ bool cmAddCustomCommandCommand
     {
     // Source is empty, use the target.
     std::vector<std::string> no_depends;
-    this->Makefile->AddCustomCommandToTarget(target, no_depends,
+    this->Makefile->AddCustomCommandToTarget(target, byproducts, no_depends,
                                              commandLines, cctype,
                                              comment, working.c_str(),
                                              escapeOldStyle, uses_terminal);
@@ -322,8 +333,8 @@ bool cmAddCustomCommandCommand
   else if(target.empty())
     {
     // Target is empty, use the output.
-    this->Makefile->AddCustomCommandToOutput(output, depends,
-                                             main_dependency,
+    this->Makefile->AddCustomCommandToOutput(output, byproducts,
+                                             depends, main_dependency,
                                              commandLines, comment,
                                              working.c_str(), false,
                                              escapeOldStyle, uses_terminal);
@@ -351,6 +362,11 @@ bool cmAddCustomCommandCommand
         }
       }
     }
+  else if (!byproducts.empty())
+    {
+    this->SetError("BYPRODUCTS may not be specified with SOURCE signatures");
+    return false;
+    }
   else if (uses_terminal)
     {
     this->SetError("USES_TERMINAL may not be used with SOURCE signatures");