Re: [Boost-build] Mid-level example of using bjam outside of boost

From: Matthew Herrmann (matthew.herrmann_at_[hidden])
Date: 2007-07-24 19:29:53

boost-build-request_at_[hidden] wrote:
> ------------------------------
> From: "Tim St. Clair" <timothysc_at_[hidden]>
> Subject: Re: [Boost-build] Mid-level example of using bjam outside of boost
> 	boost
> To: "Boost.Build developer's and user's list"
> 	<boost-build_at_[hidden]>
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>
> >From what you are telling me it appears that I need to grab all which is in
> tools/build/v2 in order to build.  That's fine, I'm willing to bite that
> dep.  However it would be very useful if there was a step by step process
> somewhere which outlines how-to setup a project.
>
> It would also be nice if there were some open source projects which use bjam
> which I could reference.  After looking at (N) bjam files I can usually
> gleen the forest through the trees.
>
> So if you know of any other projects which I can look @ that would be
> *useful*
>
> -Tim
>   

Hi Tim,

I use bjam quite a bit.

This is not a mid-level example, but it is a project for a tool I wrote 
that simply runs N tasks in parallel. It doesn't use libraries, but 
others we have do. Here's how it works. I've got the source for the 
project files below.

- I made an RPM to install all the boost-build jam files under 
/usr/share/boost-build. (That's the directory in the boost distribution 
which contains site-config.jam, user-config.jam, etc)
- My project contains boost-build.jam, project-root.jam and Jamfile all 
in the one directory. I don't use "Jamroot" spelling for the jam root 
for a simple project because they can't live in the same directory, but 
Jamfile and project-root.jam can.

If you want to do libraries within the same source tree, you just make a 
hierarchy of directories that contain Jamfiles rather than just having 
one. Look up how to use the lib target in the official docs. They cover 
that okay. If you're using pre-compiled libraries, use "alias" instead. 
I've used bjam on a source tree with ~300K LOC and 30 or so sublibraries 
and this approach works well. I saw behaviour I didn't understand using 
<search> to add search paths for libraries so I mostly just use 
<cxxflags> and <linkflags> to do what I want.

bjam's great at lazily compiling c++ the "right" way, but i find it not 
as good at handling complex pre-build tasks like automatic source code 
generation and checking source for style rules, if that's the stuff 
you're looking for in examples. I'm sure it can be done but it was just 
too complex for me to spend time learning it. I just run a tool before 
bjam to do that sort of thing. To do arbitary post-build tasks like 
FTP'ing to a remote server etc etc you should look into using the "make" 
rule.

It may be a small example, but it's by no means a toy one -- it's 
complete and it gets the job done for me.

HTH,
Matthew

Contents of project folder:

main.cpp
========
#include <iostream>
....
int main()
{
   ...
}
========

boost-build.jam:
======
boost-build /usr/share/boost-build  ;
======

project-root.jam:
==========
project root ;
==========

Jamfile:
==========
project pexec ;

using gcc : : ccache gcc4 ;

exe pexec
    : # sources
    [ glob *.cpp ]
    : <linkflags>-lstdc++
    ;

# install to ./bin/ to run easily
install bin : pexec ;
==========