Re: [boost] Independent Libraries Versioning proposal

From: David Abrahams (dave_at_[hidden])
Date: 2007-06-10 22:38:16

on Sun Jun 10 2007, "Henrik Sundberg" <storangen-AT-gmail.com> wrote:

> 2007/6/7, Gennadiy Rozental <gennadiy.rozental_at_[hidden]>:
>> I put up a wiki page that presents initial version of my proposal
>> for boost development environment, testing and release procedures.
>>
>> http://svn.boost.org/trac/boost/wiki/IndependentLibraryVersioning
>
> Is the svn structure verified to work?
>
> <theProposal>
> Optional extensions/Combined tree as a reflection:
> To support the need for a single command update of several (all) boost
> libraries it might be convenient to create combined boost tree
> (similar to our current tree) using svn externals based reflections.
> boost/
>    lib1      -> lib1/trunk/boost/lib1
>    lib1.hpp  -> lib1/trunk/boost/lib1.hpp
>    lib2      -> lib2/trunk/boost/lib2
>    lib2.hpp  -> lib2/trunk/boost/lib2.hpp
>    lib3      -> lib3/trunk/boost/lib3
>    lib3.hpp  -> lib3/trunk/boost/lib3.hpp
> </theProposal>
>
> I agree that this is needed. But I don't think it works.
>>From http://svnbook.red-bean.com/nightly/en/svn-book.html#svn.advanced.externals
>    "[A]n externals definition can only point to directories, not files."
> I.e. The hpp-externals above should not work.
>
> I think this means that to be able to place all hpp-files in the
> boost-directory, there should be a build step to put them there. I..e
> When building lib1, it should copy it's own headers to the Boost
> directory.
> I don't know if that is good either. What happens if hpp-files are
> renamed? Will the old files not remain in the Boost directory?
>
> Is this a drawback in all proposals so far?
> /$

The way to handle this, IMO, is to:

    a. move all headers into a library-specific subdirectories

    b. for backward-compatibility purposes, keep minimalist forwarding
       headers in the main distribution.

-- 
Dave Abrahams
Boost Consulting
http://www.boost-consulting.com