Re: [boost] Re: jam question

From: Toon Knapen (toon.knapen_at_[hidden])
Date: 2001-11-02 10:27:42

Jeremy Siek wrote:

> david.> My problem so far is that I don't have a clear picture of what people
> david.> want/need to do with prebuilt libraries in a cross-platform build system.
> david.> Let's discuss it. Once I understand it, getting you what you want should be
> david.> trivial.

 >

> david.> What is the analogue for non-unix systems? My impression is that only unix
> david.> does the lib + name + .a trick. Is there any point in worrying about the
> david.> non-uniformity? Perhaps the libraries are always named differently on
> david.> different platforms anyway?
> 
> I guess by "portably" I meant all unix systems :) I haven't a clue as to
> how to make that kind of thing work for windows :(
> 
> BTW, jam doesn't necessarily have to do all the work. I don't mind
> specifying different things on different platforms, as long as there's a
> way to do it.

To link `portably` with external libraries I have added a section to the 
Jamrules of my project where the user can specify the paths and names to 
all external libraries  (remark that all variables I use or in my 
project's namespace (called FEMTown) to avoid clashes ):

# begin project specific Jamrules

#path to Boost
FEMTOWN_BOOST_INC_PATH = /usr/local/boost ;
FEMTOWN_BOOST_LIB_PATH = ;
FEMTOWN_BOOST_LIBS = ;

# path to BLAS
FEMTOWN_BLAS_INC_PATH = ;
FEMTOWN_BLAS_LIB_PATH = /usr/lib ;
FEMTOWN_BLAS_LIBS = f77blas atlas g2c ;

# path to SuperLU
FEMTOWN_SUPERLU_INC_PATH = /usr/local ;
FEMTOWN_SUPERLU_LIB_PATH = /usr/local/SuperLU ;
FEMTOWN_SUPERLU_LIBS = superlu_$(SF_PLATFORM) blas_$(SF_PLATFORM) ;

FEMTOWN_BOXPRO_INC_PATH = $(BOXPRO_TOP)/.. ;
FEMTOWN_BOXPRO_LIB_PATH = $(BOXPRO_TOP)/lib ;
FEMTOWN_BOXPRO_LIBS = actran inputoutput box basic ;

# all together
FEMTOWN_INC_PATHS = $(FEMTOWN_BOOST_INC_PATH) $(FEMTOWN_BLAS_INC_PATH) 
$(FEMTOWN_SUPERLU_INC_PATH) $(FEMTOWN_BOXPRO_INC_PATH) ;
FEMTOWN_LIB_PATHS = $(FEMTOWN_BOOST_LIB_PATH) $(FEMTOWN_BLAS_LIB_PATH) 
$(FEMTOWN_SUPERLU_LIB_PATH) $(FEMTOWN_BOXPRO_LIB_PATH) ;
FEMTOWN_LIBS = $(FEMTOWN_BOOST_LIBS) $(FEMTOWN_BLAS_LIBS) 
$(FEMTOWN_SUPERLU_LIBS) $(FEMTOWN_BOXPRO_LIBS) ;

#end project specific Jamrules

When linking an executable I just write something like

#begin excerpt from Jamfile
exe femtown$(SUFEXE)
     :
        $(CPPSOURCES).cpp
        <lib>../src/lib$(MODULE)$(SUFLIB)
        <lib>../../driver/src/libdriver$(SUFLIB)
        <lib>../../analysis/src/libanalysis$(SUFLIB)
        <lib>../../solver/src/libsolver$(SUFLIB)
        <lib>../../system/src/libsystem$(SUFLIB)
        <lib>../../component/src/libcomponent$(SUFLIB)
        <lib>../../material/src/libmaterial$(SUFLIB)
        <lib>../../field/src/libfield$(SUFLIB)
        <lib>../../domain/src/libdomain$(SUFLIB)
        <lib>../../element/src/libelement$(SUFLIB)
        <lib>../../interp/src/libinterp$(SUFLIB)
        <lib>../../integr/src/libintegr$(SUFLIB)
        <lib>../../topology/src/libtopology$(SUFLIB)
        <lib>../../geometry/src/libgeometry$(SUFLIB)
        <lib>../../math/src/libmath$(SUFLIB)
        <lib>../../utilities/src/libutilities$(SUFLIB)
        <lib>../../main/src/libmain$(SUFLIB)
     :
         <include>$(PROJECT_ROOT)/modules
         <include>$(FEMTOWN_INC_PATHS)
        <library-path>$(FEMTOWN_LIB_PATHS)
        <find-library>$(FEMTOWN_LIBS)
     ;
#end excerp from Jamfile

This works great and seems to be easy on the users (they just have to 
customise the Jamrules and it works out of the box). I mainly work on 
Linux/gcc but have done something similar for another project (with Jam 
before Boost.Build was this mature) and that works on 5 Unix platforms 
and Windows.

toon