Re: [Boost-build] Testing installed components

From: Vladimir Prus (ghost_at_[hidden])
Date: 2006-02-06 03:27:13

On Sunday 05 February 2006 00:14, David Abrahams wrote:
> Recent discussion with users has convinced me that we have missed
> something important: the ability to run regression tests against the
> libraries that are constructed by
>
>           bjam install
>
> People want some way to verify that their libraries built correctly;
> I've heard it over and over.  As obvious as it may seem to us that
> whatever is successfully built will also pass tests, it is a normal
> expectation for users to have.  And who knows?  Maybe it will find
> problems.  We can hardly suffer from more accurate testing.
>
> This goes for BBv1 and BBv2, though it may only be worth adding the
> capability to BBv2.  I'm not sure about the precise semantics, because
> IIUC there can be multiple configurations that map to the same
> decorated library name.
>
> Thoughts?

Yes. 

- The top-level Boost Jamfile.v2 should use some switch to decide if it should 
be testing installed, or built libraries 
- When testing installed libraries, it should glob the install directory and
  create appropriate prebuilt library targets.
- Top level Jamfile.v2 should have this conditional logic:

    if $(testing-installed)
    {
                lib program_options : ......./libprogram_options_d.so ;
    }
    else
    {
            alias program_options : libs/program_options/build//program_options ;
    }

- All test Jamfiles must be modified to refer to libraries via 
'boost//library', and never via "../build//library".

The complication I see:
- reverse mapping from library names to target declaration.
- some libraries want client code to set some defines, IIRC

- Volodya