.\" Copyright (c) 2001 Steven Knight .\" .\" Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining .\" a copy of this software and associated documentation files (the .\" "Software"), to deal in the Software without restriction, including .\" without limitation the rights to use, copy, modify, merge, publish, .\" distribute, sublicense, and/or sell copies of the Software, and to .\" permit persons to whom the Software is furnished to do so, subject to .\" the following conditions: .\" .\" The above copyright notice and this permission notice shall be included .\" in all copies or substantial portions of the Software. .\" .\" THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS", WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY .\" KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE .\" WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND .\" NONINFRINGEMENT. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE AUTHORS OR COPYRIGHT HOLDERS BE .\" LIABLE FOR ANY CLAIM, DAMAGES OR OTHER LIABILITY, WHETHER IN AN ACTION .\" OF CONTRACT, TORT OR OTHERWISE, ARISING FROM, OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION .\" WITH THE SOFTWARE OR THE USE OR OTHER DEALINGS IN THE SOFTWARE. .\" .\" __FILE__ __REVISION__ __DATE__ __DEVELOPER__ .\" .TH SCONS 1 "December 2001" .SH NAME scons \- software constructor .SH SYNOPSIS .B scons [ .IR options ... ] [ .IR targets ... ] .SH DESCRIPTION The .B scons utility builds software (or other files) by determining which component pieces must be rebuilt and executing the necessary commands to rebuild them. By default, .B scons searches for a file named .IR SConstruct , .IR Sconstruct , or .I sconstruct (in that order) in the current directory and reads its configuration from the first file found. An alternate file name may be specified via the .B -f option. If the specified file is not in the local directory, .B scons will internally change its working directory (chdir) to the directory containing the file. The configuration file specifies the files to be built, and (optionally) the rules to build those files. Reasonable default rules exist for building common software components (executable programs, object files, libraries), so that for simple software projects, only the target and input files need be specified. .B scons can scan known input files automatically for dependency information (for example, #include statements in C or C++ files) and will rebuild dependent files appropriately whenever any "included" input file changes. .B scons supports the ability to define new scanners for unknown input file types. .B scons is normally executed in a top-level directory containing a .I SConstruct file, specifying the target or targets to be built as command-line arguments. The command .IP .nf scons . .PP .fi will build all target files in or below the current directory .RI ( . ")." .IP .nf scons / .PP .fi will build all target files in or below the root directory (i.e., all files). Specific targets may be supplied: .IP .nf scons foo bar .PP .fi Targets may be omitted from the command line, in which case the targets specified in the configuration file(s) as .B Default targets will be built: .IP .nf scons .PP .fi Specifying "cleanup" targets in configuration files is not necessary. The .B -c flag removes all files necessary to build the specified target: .IP .nf scons -c . .PP .fi to remove all target files, or: .IP .nf scons -c build export .PP .fi to remove target files under build and export. A subset of a hierarchical tree may be built by remaining at the top-level directory (where the .I SConstruct file lives) and specifying the subdirectory as the target to be built: .IP .nf scons src/subdir .PP .fi .\" or changing directory and invoking scons with the .\" .B -u .\" option, which traverses up the directory .\" hierarchy until it finds the .\" .I SConstruct .\" file, and then builds .\" targets relatively to the current subdirectory: .\" .\" .RS .\" cd src/subdir .\" .RE .\" .RS .\" scons -u . .\" .RE .B scons supports building multiple targets in parallel via a .B -j option that takes, as its argument, the number of simultaneous tasks that may be spawned: .IP .nf scons -j 4 .PP .fi builds four targets in parallel, for example. .\" Values of variables to be passed to the configuration file(s) .\" may be specified on the command line: .\" .\" .IP .\" .nf .\" scons debug=1 . .\" .PP .\" .fi .\" .\" These variables can be used in the configuration file(s) to modify .\" the build in any way. .\" .\" .B scons .\" can maintain a cache of target (derived) files that can .\" be shared between multiple builds. When caching is enabled in a .\" configuration file, any target files built by .\" .B scons .\" will be copied .\" to the cache. If an up-to-date target file is found in the cache, it .\" will be retrieved from the cache instead of being rebuilt locally. .\" Caching behavior may be disabled and controlled in other ways by the .\" .BR --cache-force , .\" .BR --cache-disable , .\" and .\" .B --cache-show .\" command-line options. The .\" .B --random .\" option is useful whenever multiple builds may be .\" trying to update the cache simultaneously. .SH OPTIONS In general, .B scons supports the same command-line options as GNU .BR make , and many of those supported by .BR cons . .IP -b Ignored for compatibility with non-GNU versions of .BR make. .IP "-c, --clean, --remove" Clean up by removing all target files for which a construction command is specified. .\" ".IP --cache-disable, --no-cache" .\" Disable caching. Will neither retrieve files from cache nor flush .\" files to cache. Has no effect if use of caching is not specified .\" in a configuration file. .\" .\" .IP "--cache-force, --cache-populate" .\" Populate a cache by forcing any already-existing up-to-date .\" target files to the cache, in addition to files built by this .\" invocation. This is useful to populate a new cache with .\" appropriate target files, or to make available in the cache .\" any target files recently built with caching disabled via the .\" .B --cache-disable .\" option. .\" .\" .IP --cache-show .\" When retrieving a target file from a cache, show the command .\" that would have been executed to build the file. This produces .\" consistent output for build logs, regardless of whether a target .\" file was rebuilt or retrieved from cache. .TP .RI "-C" " directory" ", --directory=" directory Change to the specified .I directory before searching for the .IR SConstruct , .IR Sconstruct , or .I sconstruct file, or doing anything else. Multiple .B -C options are interpreted relative to the previous one, and the right-most .B -C option wins. (This option is nearly equivalent to .BR "-f directory/SConstruct" , except that it will search for .IR SConstruct , .IR Sconstruct , or .I sconstruct in the specified directory.) .\" .IP -d .\" Display dependencies while building target files. Useful for .\" figuring out why a specific file is being rebuilt, as well as .\" general debugging of the build process. .TP .RI --debug= type Print debugging information durring the build process. .I type specifies what type of of debugging information to print. Currently the only supported type is .I tree which causes the dependency tree to be printed after each top-level target is built. .IP "-e, --environment-overrides" Variables from the execution environment override construction variables from the configuration files. .TP .RI -f " file" ", --file=" file ", --makefile=" file ", --sconstruct=" file Use .I file as the initial configuration file. If .I file is in another directory, .B scons will change to that directory before building targets. .IP "-h, --help" Print a local help message for this build, if one is defined in the configuration file(s), plus a line that describes the .B -H option for command-line option help. If no local help message is defined, prints the standard help message about command-line options. Exits after displaying the appropriate message. .IP "-H, --help-options" Print the standard help message about command-line options and exit. .IP "-i, --ignore-errors" Ignore all errors from commands executed to rebuild files. .TP .RI -I " directory" ", --include-dir=" directory Specifies a .I directory to search for imported Python modules. If several .B -I options are used, the directories are searched in the order specified. .TP .RI -j " N" ", --jobs=" N Specifies the number of jobs (commands) to run simultaneously. If there is more than one .B -j option, the last one is effective. .\" ??? If the .\" .B -j .\" option .\" is specified without an argument, .\" .B scons .\" will not limit the number of .\" simultaneous jobs. .IP "-k, --keep-going" Continue as much as possible after an error. The target that failed and those that depend on it will not be remade, but other targets specified on the command line will still be processed. .\" .TP .\" .RI -l " N" ", --load-average=" N ", --max-load=" N .\" No new jobs (commands) will be started if .\" there are other jobs running and the system load .\" average is at least .\" .I N .\" (a floating-point number). .\" .\" .IP --list-derived .\" List derived files (targets, dependencies) that would be built, .\" but do not build them. .\" [XXX This can probably go away with the right .\" combination of other options. Revisit this issue.] .\" .\" .IP --list-actions .\" List derived files that would be built, with the actions .\" (commands) that build them. Does not build the files. .\" [XXX This can probably go away with the right .\" combination of other options. Revisit this issue.] .\" .\" .IP --list-where .\" List derived files that would be built, plus where the file is .\" defined (file name and line number). Does not build the files. .\" [XXX This can probably go away with the right .\" combination of other options. Revisit this issue.] .IP -m Ignored for compatibility with non-GNU versions of .BR make . .IP "-n, --just-print, --dry-run, --recon" No execute. Print the commands that would be executed to build any out-of-date target files, but do not execute the commands. .\" .TP .\" .RI -o " file" ", --old-file=" file ", --assume-old=" file .\" Do not rebuild .\" .IR file , .\" and do .\" not rebuild anything due to changes in the contents of .\" .IR file . .\" .\" .TP .\" .RI --override " file" .\" Read values to override specific build environment variables .\" from the specified .\" .IR file . .\" .\" .IP -p .\" Print the data base (construction environments, .\" Builder and Scanner objects) that are defined .\" after reading the configuration files. .\" After printing, a normal build is performed .\" as usual, as specified by other command-line options. .\" This also prints version information .\" printed by the .\" .B -v .\" option. .\" .\" To print the database without performing a build do: .\" .IP .\" .nf .\" scons -p -q .\" .PP .\" .fi .\" .\" .IP "-q, --question" .\" Do not run any commands, or print anything. Just return an exit .\" status that is zero if the specified targets are already up to .\" date, nonzero otherwise. .\" .\" .IP "-r, -R, --no-builtin-rules, --no-builtin-variables" .\" Clear the default construction variables. Construction .\" environments that are created will be completely empty. .\" .\" .IP --random .\" Build dependencies in a random order. This is useful when .\" building multiple trees simultaneously with caching enabled as a .\" way to prevent multiple builds from simultaneously trying to build .\" or retrieve the same target files. .IP "-s, --silent, --quiet" Silent. Do not print commands that are executed to rebuild target files. .IP "-S, --no-keep-going, --stop" Ignored for compatibility with GNU .BR make . .IP "-t, --touch" Ignored for compatibility with GNU .BR make . Touching a file to make it appear up-to-date is unnecessary when using .BR scons .) .\" .IP -u .\" Traverse up directories until an .\" .I SConstruct .\" or .\" .I sconstruct .\" file is found, and use that .\" as the top of the directory tree. Only targets at or below the .\" current directory will be built. .IP "-v, --version" Print the .B scons version, copyright information, list of authors, and any other relevant information. Then exit. .IP "-w, --print-directory" Print a message containing the working directory before and after other processing. .IP --no-print-directory Turn off -w, even if it was turned on implicitly. .\" .TP .\" .RI --write-filenames= file .\" Write all filenames considered into .\" .IR file . .\" .\" .TP .\" .RI -W " file" ", --what-if=" file ", --new-file=" file ", --assume-new=" file .\" Pretend that the target .\" .I file .\" has been .\" modified. When used with the .\" .B -n .\" option, this .\" show you what would be rebuilt if you were to modify that file. .\" Without .\" .B -n .\" ... what? XXX .\" .\" .IP --warn-undefined-variables .\" Warn when an undefined variable is referenced. .\" .\" .TP .\" .RI -Y " repository" ", --repository=" repository .\" Search the specified repository for any input and target .\" files not found in the local directory hierarchy. Multiple .\" .B -Y .\" options may specified, in which case the .\" repositories are searched in the order specified. .SH CONFIGURATION FILE REFERENCE A construction environment is the basic means by which the configuration files communicate build information to .BR scons . A new construction environment is created using the .B Environment function: .IP .nf env = Environment() .PP .fi Build rules are specified by calling builder methods on a construction environment. The arguments to the builder methods are target (a list of target files) and source (a list of source files). If a string is given for target or source, then .B scons interprets it as a space delimited list of files. The following are examples of calling a builder: .IP .nf env.Program(target = 'bar', source = 'bar.c foo.c') env.Program('bar', 'bar.c foo.c') env.Program('bar', ['bar.c', 'foo.c']) .PP .fi .B scons provides the following builders: .IP Object Builds an object file from one or more C/C++ source files. Source files must have one of the following extensions: .c, .C, .cc, .cpp, .cxx, .c++, .C++. The target object file prefix and suffix (if any) are automatically added. Example: .IP .nf env.Object(target = 'bar', source = 'bar.c') .PP .fi .IP Program Builds an executable given one or more object files or C/C++ source files. If any C/C++ source files are given, then they will be automatically compiled to object files. The executable prefix and suffix (if any) are automatically added to the target. Example: .IP .nf env.Program(target = 'bar', source = 'bar.c foo.o') .PP .fi .IP Library Builds a library given one or more object files or C/C++ source files. If any C/C++ source files are given, then they will be automatically compiled to object files. The library prefix and suffix (if any) are automatically added to the target. Example: .IP .nf env.Library(target = 'bar', source = 'bar.c foo.o') .PP .fi .LP C/C++ source files are automatically scanned for dependencies by .B scons so the dependencies do not need to be provided. In addition, all builder targets automatically depend on their sources. An explicit dependency can be specified using the .B Depends method of a construction environment: .IP .nf env.Depends('foo.c', 'foo.h') .PP .fi When .B scons is executed it will build the targets given as arguments on the command line. Default targets can be specified using the .B Default function: .IP .nf Default('foo', 'bar', 'baz') .PP .fi A configuration file can specify other configuration files to execute using the .B SConscript function: .IP .nf SConscript('dir/SConscript') .PP .fi A construction environment has an associated dictionary of construction variables that are used by built-in or user-supplied build rules. A number of useful construction variables are automatically defined by scons for each supported platform, and additional construction variables can be defined by the user. The following is a list of the automatically defined construction variables: .IP CC The C compiler. .IP CCFLAGS General options that are passed to the C compiler. .IP CCOM The command line used to compile a C source file to an object file. .IP CXX The C++ compiler. .IP CXXFLAGS General options that are passed to the C++ compiler. .IP CXXCOM The command line used to compile a C++ source file to an object file. .IP CPPPATH The list of directories that the C preprocessor will search for include directories. The C/C++ implicit dependency scanner will search these directories for include files. Don't explicitly put include directory arguments in CCFLAGS or CXXFLAGS because the result will be non-portable and the directories will not be searched by the depedency scanner. Note: directory names in CPPPATH will be looked-up relative to the SConscript directory when they are used in a command. To force .B scons to look-up a directory relative to the root of the source tree use #: .IP .nf env.Environment(CPPPATH='#/include') .PP .fi .RS The directory look-up can also be forced using the .BR Dir () function: .RE .IP .nf include = Dir('include') env.Environment(CPPPATH=include) .PP .fi .RE .IP LINK The linker. .IP LINKFLAGS General options passed to the linker. .IP LINKCOM The command line used to link object files into an executable. .IP AR The static library command. .IP ARFLAGS General options passed to the static library command. .IP ARCOM The command line used to generate a static library from object files. .IP BUILDERS A list of the available builders. [Object, Program, Library] by default. .IP SCANNERS A list of the available implicit dependency scanners. [CScan] by default. .IP OBJPREFIX The prefix used for object file names. .IP OBJSUFFIX The suffix used for object file names. .IP PROGPREFIX The prefix used for executable file names. .IP PROGSUFFIX The suffix used for executable file names. .IP LIBPREFIX The prefix used for library file names. .IP LIBSUFFIX The suffix used for library file names. .IP LIBDIRPREFIX The prefix used to specify a library directory on the linker command line. .IP LIBDIRASUFFIX The suffix used to specify a library directory on the linker command line. .IP LIBLINKPREFIX The prefix used to specify a library to link on the linker command line. .IP LIBLINKSUFFIX The suffix used to specify a library to link on the linker command line. .IP INCPREFIX The prefix used to specify an include directory on the C compiler command line. .IP INCSUFFIX The suffix used to specify an include directory on the C compiler command line. .IP ENV The environment to use when invoking commands. .LP Construction variables can be retrieved and set using the .B Dictionary method of the construction environment: .IP .nf dict = env.Dictionary() dict["CC"] = "cc" .PP .fi Construction variables can also be passed to the construction environment constructor: .IP .nf env = Environment(CC="cc") .PP .fi or when copying a construction environment using the .B Copy method: .IP .nf env2 = env.Copy(CC="cl.exe") .PP .fi .B scons also provides various function not associated with a construction environment that configuration files can use to affect the build: .TP .RI SConscript( script ", [" exports ]) This tells .B scons to execute .I script as a configuration file. The optional .I exports argument provides a list of variable names to export to .IR script ". " exports can also be a space delimited string of variables names. .I script must use the .BR Import () function to import the variables. Any variables returned by .I script using .BR Return () will be returned by the call to .BR SConscript (). Example: .IP .nf foo = SConscript('subdir/SConscript', "env") .PP .fi .TP .RI Export( vars ) This tells .B scons to export a list of variables from the current configuration file to all other configuration files. The exported variables are kept in a global collection, so subsequent exports will over-write previous exports that have the same name. Multiple variable names can be passed to .BR Export () in a space delimited string or as seperate arguments. Example: .IP .nf Export("env") .PP .fi .TP .RI Import( vars ) This tells .B scons to import a list of variables into the current configuration file. This will import variables that were exported with .BR Export () or in the .I exports argument to .BR SConscript (). Variables exported by .BR SConscript () have precedence. Multiple variable names can be passed to .BR Import () in a space delimited string or as seperate arguments. Example: .IP .nf Import("env") .PP .fi .TP .RI Return( vars ) This tells .B scons what variable(s) to use as the return value(s) of the current configuration file. These variables will be returned to the "calling" configuration file as the return value(s) of .BR SConscript (). Multiple variable names can be passed to .BR Return () in a space delimited string or as seperate arguments. Example: .IP .nf Return("foo") .PP .fi .TP .RI Default( targets ) This specifies a list of default targets. Default targets will be built by .B scons if no explicit targets are given on the comamnd line. Multiple targets can be specified either as a space delimited string of target file names or as seperate arguments. .BR Default () will also accept the return value of any of the ccnstruction environment builder methods. .TP .RI Help( text ) This specifies help text to be printed if the .B -h argument is given to .BR scons . .B scons will exit after printing out the help text. .TP .RI BuildDir( build_dir ", " src_dir ", [" duplicate ]) This specifies a build directory to use for all derived files. .I build_dir specifies the build directory to be used for all derived files that would normally be built under .IR src_dir . Multiple build directories can be set up for multiple build variants, for example. .B scons will link or copy (depending on the platform) all the source files into the build directory if .I duplicate is set to 1 (the default). If .I duplicate is set to 0, then .B scons will not copy or link any source files, which may cause build problems in certain situations (e.g. C source files that are generated by the build). .IR duplicate =0 is usually safe, and is always more efficient than .IR duplicate =1. .TP .RI Dir( name ", [" directory ]) This returns an object that represents a given directory .IR name . .I name can be a relative or absolute path. .I directory is an optional directory that will be used as the parent directory. .TP .RI File( name ", [" directory ]) This returns an object that represents a given file .IR name . .I name can be a relative or absolute path. .I directory is an optional directory that will be used as the parent directory. .SH EXTENDING .B scons can be extended by adding new builders to a construction environment using the .B Builder function. Builder accepts the following arguments: .IP name The name of the builder. This will be the of the construction environment method used to create an instance of the builder. .IP action The command line string used to build the target from the source. .B action can also be a dictionary mapping source file name suffixes to command line string, if the builder can accept multiple source file extensions. .IP prefix The prefix that will be prepended to the target file name. .IP suffix The suffix that will be appended to the target file name. .IP src_suffix The expected source file name suffix. .IP src_builder Specifies a builder to use when a source file name suffix does not match any of the suffixes of the builder. Using this argument produces a multi-stage builder. .LP .B scons performs construction variable interpolation on the strings that make up the command line of builders before executing the command. Variables are specified by a $ prefix and the variable name may be surrounded by curly braces ({}) to separate the name from the trailing characters. Besides construction variables, scons provides the following variables for each command execution: .IP TARGET The file name of the target being built, or the file name of the first target if multiple targets are being built. .IP TARGETS The file names of the targets being built. .IP SOURCES The file names of the sources of the build command. .LP For example, given the construction variable CC='cc', targets=['foo'], and sources=['foo.c', 'bar.c']: .IP .nf action='$CC -c -o $TARGET $SOURCES' .PP .fi would produce the command line: .IP .nf cc -c -o foo foo.c bar.c .PP .fi .\" XXX document how to add user defined scanners. .SH EXAMPLES To help you get started using SCons (in lieu of a complete user guide), here is a brief overview of how to perform some common tasks: .SS Basic Compilation From a Single Source File .RS .nf env = Environment() env.Program(target = 'foo', source = 'foo.c') .RE .fi .SS Basic Compilation From Multiple Source Files .RS .nf env = Environment() env.Program(target = 'foo', source = 'f1.c f2.c f3.c') .RE .fi .SS Setting a Compilation Flag .RS .nf env = Environment(CCFLAGS = '-g') env.Program(target = 'foo', source = 'foo.c') .RE .fi .SS Search The Local Directory For .h Files Note: You do .I not need to specify -I options by hand. SCons will construct the right -I options from CPPPATH. .RS .nf env = Environment(CPPPATH = ['.']) env.Program(target = 'foo', source = 'foo.c') .RE .fi .SS Search Multiple Directories For .h Files .RS .nf env = Environment(CPPPATH = ['include1', 'include2']) env.Program(target = 'foo', source = 'foo.c') .RE .fi .SS Defining Your Own Builder Object You .I must specify a "name" keyword argument for the builder, as that becomes the Environment method name you use to call the builder. Notice also that you can leave off the suffixes, and the builder will add them automatically. .RS .nf bld = Builder(name = 'PDFBuilder', action = 'pdftex < $SOURCES > $TARGET' suffix = '.pdf', src_suffix = '.tex') env = Environment(BUILDERS = [bld]) env.PDFBuilder(target = 'foo.pdf', source = 'foo.tex') # The following creates "bar.bdf" from "bar.text" env.PDFBuilder(target = 'bar', source = 'bar') .RE .fi .SS Creating a Hierarchical Build Notice that the file names specified in a subdirectory are relative to that subdirectory. .RS .nf SConstruct: env = Environment() env.Program(target = 'foo', source = 'foo.c') SConscript('sub/SConscript') sub/SConscript: env = Environment() # Builds sub/foo from sub/foo.c env.Program(target = 'foo', source = 'foo.c') SConscript('dir/SConscript') sub/dir/SConscript: env = Environment() # Builds sub/dir/foo from sub/dir/foo.c env.Program(target = 'foo', source = 'foo.c') .RE .fi .SS Sharing Variables Between SConscript Files You must explicitly Export() and Import() variables that you want to share between SConscript files. .RS .nf SConstruct: env = Environment() env.Program(target = 'foo', source = 'foo.c') Export("env") SConscript('subdirectory/SConscript') subdirectory/SConscript: Import("env") env.Program(target = 'foo', source = 'foo.c') .RE .fi .SH ENVIRONMENT .IP SCONS_LIB_DIR Specifies the directory that contains the SCons Python module directory (e.g. /home/aroach/scons-src-0.01/src/engine). .IP SCONSFLAGS A string of options that will be used by scons in addition to those passed on the command line. .SH "SEE ALSO" .B scons User Manual, .B scons Design Document, .B scons source code. .SH AUTHORS Steven Knight .RS .RE Anthony Roach