Re: [boost] Radical idea for repository structure

From: Bjørn Roald (bjorn_at_[hidden])
Date: 2007-09-20 02:11:15

David Abrahams wrote:
> * Presto, a way to explicitly declare and track library
>   inter-dependencies!  If you fail to declare a dependency in your
>   Jamfile, your tests won't compile.
>   
The build system is _not_ bjam based, but I use similar setup at work.  
It is very flexible and the fact that you simply can maintain and 
enforce a none-cyclic graph between what we call packages make your life 
a lot simpler.

One important point that you need to take care of is that tests for a  
library need separate packages(Jamfile) from the library itself.  Tests 
typically depend on the library being tested, but also test framework 
and possibly other things the lib does not need.  This should never 
become an explicit dependency of the lib.  I guess this may mean that 
header only libraries somehow need a Jamfile to indicate its immediate 
dependencies.

Another useful point that has not been mentioned in other replies is 
that such a dependency graph allow controlled build/test concurrency at 
the package level.

-- 
Bjørn