Re: [jamboost] Re: tools/build/build_system.htm examples wrong?

From: Beman Dawes (bdawes_at_[hidden])
Date: 2003-06-30 19:19:21

At 12:27 AM 6/30/2003, David Abrahams wrote:
>Beman Dawes <bdawes_at_[hidden]> writes:
>
>> The "Initiating a Build" section of .../tools/build/build_system.htm 
has a
>
>> table with several command line examples. For example:
>>
>> bjam -sBUILD="<cxxflags>/G6"
>>
>> At least on my Win XP system, that doesn't work. It has to be:
>>
>> bjam "-sBUILD=<cxxflags>/G6"
>>
>> I'm not entirely sure, but wouldn't be surprised if every case is wrong 

>> where the double-quote is in the middle of an argument.
>
>Very suprising. I never had a problem with that syntax on XP myself.
>
>> If someone with a better understanding of bjam (and how various 
operating
>
>> systems parse arguments) will confirm that, I'll update the HTML.
>
>All I have for you is anti-confirmation.

Hum... Test... Test... Test...

OK, here is what happens. If bjam is invoked directly from the command line 
on XP, both of these work correctly and identically:

bjam -a -d2 -sBUILD="<cxxflags>-W4" "-sTOOLS=vc7.1" config_info

bjam -a -d2 "-sBUILD=<cxxflags>-W4" "-sTOOLS=vc7.1" config_info

Problem 1: If the -W4 is changed to /W4, the / gets converted to a \, which 
vc7.1 interprets as a filename rather than an option.

Problem 2 (the original problem): If bjam is invoked in a batch file like 
this:

bjam %1 %2 %3 %4 %5 %6 %7 %8 %9

and the batch file is invoked like this:

my_batch -a -d2 "-sBUILD=<cxxflags>-W4" "-sTOOLS=vc7.1" config_info

then all works as desired. But if invoked like this:

my_batch -a -d2 -sBUILD="<cxxflags>-W4" "-sTOOLS=vc7.1" config_info

then bjam is invoked with this set of arguments:

bjam -a -d2 -sBUILD "<cxxflags>-W4" "-sTOOLS=vc7.1" config_info

and bjam then gives unexpected results.

Possible fixes:

* Try to explain the above in the docs.

* Just give examples in the form "-sBUILD=<cxxflags>-W4".

* Change bjam so it treats two arguments -sBUILD "<cxxflags>-W4" the same 
as -sBUILD="<cxxflags>-W4" and "-sBUILD=<cxxflags>-W4"

I don't have a strong feeling as to which is best.

--Beman