<!-- Copyright (c) 2001, 2002, 2003 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. --> <!-- =head1 Separating source and build trees It's often desirable to keep any derived files from the build completely separate from the source files. This makes it much easier to keep track of just what is a source file, and also makes it simpler to handle B<variant> builds, especially if you want the variant builds to co-exist. =head2 Separating build and source directories using the Link command Cons provides a simple mechanism that handles all of these requirements. The C<Link> command is invoked as in this example: Link 'build' => 'src'; The specified directories are ``linked'' to the specified source directory. Let's suppose that you setup a source directory, F<src>, with the sub-directories F<world> and F<hello> below it, as in the previous example. You could then substitute for the original build lines the following: Build qw( build/world/Conscript build/hello/Conscript ); Notice that you treat the F<Conscript> file as if it existed in the build directory. Now if you type the same command as before, you will get the following results: % cons export Install build/world/world.h as export/include/world.h cc -Iexport/include -c build/hello/hello.c -o build/hello/hello.o cc -Iexport/include -c build/world/world.c -o build/world/world.o ar r build/world/libworld.a build/world/world.o ar: creating build/world/libworld.a ranlib build/world/libworld.a Install build/world/libworld.a as export/lib/libworld.a cc -o build/hello/hello build/hello/hello.o -Lexport/lib -lworld Install build/hello/hello as export/bin/hello Again, Cons has taken care of the details for you. In particular, you will notice that all the builds are done using source files and object files from the build directory. For example, F<build/world/world.o> is compiled from F<build/world/world.c>, and F<export/include/world.h> is installed from F<build/world/world.h>. This is accomplished on most systems by the simple expedient of ``hard'' linking the required files from each source directory into the appropriate build directory. The links are maintained correctly by Cons, no matter what you do to the source directory. If you modify a source file, your editor may do this ``in place'' or it may rename it first and create a new file. In the latter case, any hard link will be lost. Cons will detect this condition the next time the source file is needed, and will relink it appropriately. You'll also notice, by the way, that B<no> changes were required to the underlying F<Conscript> files. And we can go further, as we shall see in the next section. =head2 Explicit references to the source directory When using the C<Link> command on some operating systems or with some tool chains, it's sometimes useful to have a command actually use the path name to the source directory, not the build directory. For example, on systems that must copy, not "hard link," the F<src/> and F<build/> copies of C<Linked> files, using the F<src/> path of a file name might make an editor aware that a syntax error must be fixed in the source directory, not the build directory. You can tell Cons that you want to use the "source path" for a file by preceding the file name with a ``!'' (exclamation point). For example, if we add a ``!'' to the beginning of a source file: Program $env "foo", "!foo.c"; # Notice initial ! on foo.c Cons will compile the target as follows: cc -c src/foo.c -o build/foo.o cc -o build/foo build/foo.o Notice that Cons has compiled the program from the the F<src/foo.c> source file. Without the initial ``!'', Cons would have compiled the program using the F<build/foo.c> path name. --> <para> It's often useful to keep any built files completely separate from the source files. This is usually done by creating one or more separate <emphasis>build directories</emphasis> that are used to hold the built objects files, libraries, and executable programs, etc. for a specific flavor of build. &SCons; provides two ways to do this, one through the &SConscript; function that we've already seen, and the second through a more flexible &BuildDir; function. </para> <section> <title>Specifying a Build Directory as Part of an &SConscript; Call</title> <para> The most straightforward way to establish a build directory uses the fact that the usual way to set up a build hierarchy is to have an &SConscript; file in the source subdirectory. If you then pass a &build_dir; argument to the &SConscript; function call: </para> <scons_example name="ex1"> <file name="SConstruct" printme="1"> SConscript('src/SConscript', build_dir='build') </file> <file name="src/SConscript"> env = Environment() env.Program('hello.c') </file> <file name="src/hello.c"> int main() { printf("Hello, world!\n"); } </file> </scons_example> <para> &SCons; will then build all of the files in the &build; subdirectory: </para> <scons_output example="ex1"> <command>ls src</command> <command>scons -Q</command> <command>ls build</command> </scons_output> <para> But wait a minute--what's going on here? &SCons; created the object file <filename>build/hello.o</filename> in the &build; subdirectory, as expected. But even though our &hello_c; file lives in the &src; subdirectory, &SCons; has actually compiled a <filename>build/hello.c</filename> file to create the object file. </para> <para> What's happened is that &SCons; has <emphasis>duplicated</emphasis> the &hello_c; file from the &src; subdirectory to the &build; subdirectory, and built the program from there. The next section explains why &SCons; does this. </para> </section> <section> <title>Why &SCons; Duplicates Source Files in a Build Directory</title> <para> &SCons; duplicates source files in build directories because it's the most straightforward way to guarantee a correct build <emphasis>regardless of include-file directory paths, relative references between files, or tool support for putting files in different locations</emphasis>, and the &SCons; philosophy is to, by default, guarantee a correct build in all cases. </para> <para> The most direct reason to duplicate source files in build directories is simply that some tools (mostly older vesions) are written to only build their output files in the same directory as the source files. In this case, the choices are either to build the output file in the source directory and move it to the build directory, or to duplicate the source files in the build directory. </para> <para> Additionally, relative references between files can cause problems if we don't just duplicate the hierarchy of source files in the build directory. You can see this at work in use of the C preprocessor <literal>#include</literal> mechanism with double quotes, not angle brackets: </para> <sconstruct> #include "file.h" </sconstruct> <para> The <emphasis>de facto</emphasis> standard behavior for most C compilers in this case is to first look in the same directory as the source file that contains the <literal>#include</literal> line, then to look in the directories in the preprocessor search path. Add to this that the &SCons; implementation of support for code repositories (described below) means not all of the files will be found in the same directory hierarchy, and the simplest way to make sure that the right include file is found is to duplicate the source files into the build directory, which provides a correct build regardless of the original location(s) of the source files. </para> <para> Although source-file duplication guarantees a correct build even in these end-cases, it <emphasis>can</emphasis> usually be safely disabled. The next section describes how you can disable the duplication of source files in the build directory. </para> </section> <section> <title>Telling &SCons; to Not Duplicate Source Files in the Build Directory</title> <para> In most cases and with most tool sets, &SCons; can place its target files in a build subdirectory <emphasis>without</emphasis> duplicating the source files and everything will work just fine. You can disable the default &SCons; behavior by specifying <literal>duplicate=0</literal> when you call the &SConscript; function: </para> <sconstruct> SConscript('src/SConscript', build_dir='build', duplicate=0) </sconstruct> <para> When this flag is specified, &SCons; uses the build directory like most people expect--that is, the output files are placed in the build directory while the source files stay in the source directory: </para> <literallayout> % <userinput>ls src</userinput> SConscript hello.c % <userinput>scons -Q</userinput> cc -c src/hello.c -o build/hello.o cc -o build/hello build/hello.o % <userinput>ls build</userinput> hello hello.o </literallayout> </section> <section> <title>The &BuildDir; Function</title> <para> Use the &BuildDir; function to establish that target files should be built in a separate directory from the source files: </para> <scons_example name="ex_builddir"> <file name="SConstruct" printme="1"> BuildDir('build', 'src') env = Environment() env.Program('build/hello.c') </file> <file name="src/hello.c"> int main() { printf("Hello, world!\n"); } </file> </scons_example> <para> Note that when you're not using an &SConscript; file in the &src; subdirectory, you must actually specify that the program must be built from the <filename>build/hello.c</filename> file that &SCons; will duplicate in the &build; subdirectory. </para> <para> When using the &BuildDir; function directly, &SCons; still duplicates the source files in the build directory by default: </para> <scons_output example="ex_builddir"> <command>ls src</command> <command>scons -Q</command> <command>ls build</command> </scons_output> <para> You can specify the same <literal>duplicate=0</literal> argument that you can specify for an &SConscript; call: </para> <scons_example name="ex_duplicate_0"> <file name="SConstruct" printme="1"> BuildDir('build', 'src', duplicate=0) env = Environment() env.Program('build/hello.c') </file> <file name="src/hello.c"> int main() { printf("Hello, world!\n"); } </file> </scons_example> <para> In which case &SCons; will disable duplication of the source files: </para> <scons_output example="ex_duplicate_0"> <command>ls src</command> <command>scons -Q</command> <command>ls build</command> </scons_output> </section> <section> <title>Using &BuildDir; With an &SConscript; File</title> <para> Even when using the &BuildDir; function, it's much more natural to use it with a subsidiary &SConscript; file. For example, if the <filename>src/SConscript</filename> looks like this: </para> <scons_example name="example_builddir_sconscript"> <file name="SConstruct"> BuildDir('build', 'src') SConscript('build/SConscript') </file> <file name="src/SConscript" printme="1"> env = Environment() env.Program('hello.c') </file> <file name="src/hello.c"> int main() { printf("Hello, world!\n"); } </file> </scons_example> <para> Then our &SConstruct; file could look like: </para> <scons_example_file example="example_builddir_sconscript" name="SConstruct"> </scons_example_file> <para> Yielding the following output: </para> <scons_output example="example_builddir_sconscript"> <command>ls src</command> <command>scons -Q</command> <command>ls build</command> </scons_output> <para> Notice that this is completely equivalent to the use of &SConscript; that we learned about in the previous section. </para> </section> <!-- <section> <title>Why You'd Want to Call &BuildDir; Instead of &SConscript;</title> <para> XXX </para> </section> -->