Ninja: Add comment with Fortran dependency design documentation

1 files changed, 78 insertions, 0 deletions

diff --git a/Source/cmGlobalNinjaGenerator.cxx b/Source/cmGlobalNinjaGenerator.cxx
index 42ce622..6da6617 100644
--- a/Source/cmGlobalNinjaGenerator.cxx
+++ b/Source/cmGlobalNinjaGenerator.cxx
@@ -1408,3 +1408,81 @@ void cmGlobalNinjaGenerator::StripNinjaOutputPathPrefixAsSuffix(
   EnsureTrailingSlash(path);
   cmStripSuffixIfExists(path, this->OutputPathPrefix);
 }
+
+/*
+
+We use the following approach to support Fortran.  Each target already
+has a <target>.dir/ directory used to hold intermediate files for CMake.
+For each target, a FortranDependInfo.json file is generated by CMake with
+information about include directories, module directories, and the locations
+the per-target directories for target dependencies.
+
+Compilation of source files within a target is split into the following steps:
+
+1. Preprocess all sources, scan preprocessed output for module dependencies.
+   This step is done with independent build statements for each source,
+   and can therefore be done in parallel.
+
+    rule Fortran_PREPROCESS
+      depfile = $DEP_FILE
+      command = gfortran -cpp $DEFINES $INCLUDES $FLAGS -E $in -o $out &&
+                cmake -E cmake_ninja_depends \
+                  --tdi=FortranDependInfo.json --pp=$out --dep=$DEP_FILE \
+                  --obj=$OBJ_FILE --ddi=$DYNDEP_INTERMEDIATE_FILE
+
+    build src.f90-pp.f90 | src.f90-pp.f90.ddi: Fortran_PREPROCESS src.f90
+      OBJ_FILE = src.f90.o
+      DEP_FILE = src.f90-pp.f90.d
+      DYNDEP_INTERMEDIATE_FILE = src.f90-pp.f90.ddi
+
+   The ``cmake -E cmake_ninja_depends`` tool reads the preprocessed output
+   and generates the ninja depfile for preprocessor dependencies.  It also
+   generates a "ddi" file (in a format private to CMake) that lists the
+   object file that compilation will produce along with the module names
+   it provides and/or requires.  The "ddi" file is an implicit output
+   because it should not appear in "$out" but is generated by the rule.
+
+2. Consolidate the per-source module dependencies saved in the "ddi"
+   files from all sources to produce a ninja "dyndep" file, ``Fortran.dd``.
+
+    rule Fortran_DYNDEP
+      command = cmake -E cmake_ninja_dyndep \
+                  --tdi=FortranDependInfo.json --dd=$out $in
+
+    build Fortran.dd: Fortran_DYNDEP src1.f90-pp.f90.ddi src2.f90-pp.f90.ddi
+
+   The ``cmake -E cmake_ninja_dyndep`` tool reads the "ddi" files from all
+   sources in the target and the ``FortranModules.json`` files from targets
+   on which the target depends.  It computes dependency edges on compilations
+   that require modules to those that provide the modules.  This information
+   is placed in the ``Fortran.dd`` file for ninja to load later.  It also
+   writes the expected location of modules provided by this target into
+   ``FortranModules.json`` for use by dependent targets.
+
+3. Compile all sources after loading dynamically discovered dependencies
+   of the compilation build statements from their ``dyndep`` bindings.
+
+    rule Fortran_COMPILE
+      command = gfortran $INCLUDES $FLAGS -c $in -o $out
+
+    build src1.f90.o: Fortran_COMPILE src1.f90-pp.f90 || Fortran.dd
+      dyndep = Fortran.dd
+
+   The "dyndep" binding tells ninja to load dynamically discovered
+   dependency information from ``Fortran.dd``.  This adds information
+   such as:
+
+    build src1.f90.o | mod1.mod: dyndep
+      restat = 1
+
+   This tells ninja that ``mod1.mod`` is an implicit output of compiling
+   the object file ``src1.f90.o``.  The ``restat`` binding tells it that
+   the timestamp of the output may not always change.  Additionally:
+
+    build src2.f90.o: dyndep | mod1.mod
+
+   This tells ninja that ``mod1.mod`` is a dependency of compiling the
+   object file ``src2.f90.o``.  This ensures that ``src1.f90.o`` and
+   ``mod1.mod`` will always be up to date before ``src2.f90.o`` is built
+   (because the latter consumes the module).
+*/