Re: [boost] A retrospect on 'CMakeLists.txt' policy review

Subject: Re: [boost] A retrospect on 'CMakeLists.txt' policy review
From: Steven Watanabe (watanabesj_at_[hidden])
Date: 2016-06-02 21:50:42

AMDG

On 06/02/2016 07:26 PM, Louis Dionne wrote:
> <snip>
> IIUC, you suggest that we have both a CMakeLists.txt at the root and one in 
> build/, with the one in build/ possibly doing the "real" stuff and the one at 
> the root just forwarding to build/. Is this correct? If not, please completely
> ignore the rest of my reply below.
> 
> If I understand correctly, however, then I might be inflexible but having a 
> CMake file in the build/ directory is still a major annoyance, as it disturbs 
> the usual CMake workflow. The build/ directory is normally used for products, 
> and as such it contains no source files. This means that we can't put build/ 
> in the .gitignore file, and that we can't simply delete the build/ directory 
> to clean things up. That disturbs the usual CMake workflow, and I don't think 
> this is acceptable.
> 

  All of these arguments depend solely on the
existence of build/, regardless of whether
it contains a CMakeLists.txt or not.  For separately
compiled libraries, build/ *must* exist because
that's the layout that we've chosen for Boost.Build.
For header-only libraries, like hana, it's not needed
and should not exist, making this point moot.
  I just looked at your top-level CMakeLists.txt and it
seems like it should be acceptable even by the strictest
possible reading of the requirements.  It definitely
does not belong in build/.

In Christ,
Steven Watanabe