[Boost-build] How to invoke custom script from actions and related questions

From: Kirill Lapshin (kir_at_[hidden])
Date: 2006-03-01 17:57:28

Hello,

I've used BBv2 couple of years ago, but did not have opportunity to use 
it since then, even though my previous experience was very pleasant.

I see you guys are moving rapidly towards switching Boost to BBv2. This 
is exciting! I wish you smooth and rapid transition.

As I said I haven't used BBv2 for quite awhile, and literally forgot 
everything. My apologies in advance for stupid questions. I tried to 
find answers in docs, searched this list, and bugged to death a good 
friend of mine who have used boost build recently... but have not got 
much luck.

Anyways, here is my problem.

On surface the problem is very simple. Suppose you pretty much want to 
use verbatim example out of a box. Suppose the project is a bit more 
complicated then everything-in-one-directory. Now if you have

actions inline-file
{
     "./inline_file.py" $(<) $(>)
}

it will fail miserably when you execute bjam from any folder other then 
the one where inline_file.py is located.

I thought ok, fine I'll use path-constant!

Problem -- I defined path-constant in Jamroot, but it is not visible in 
verbatim.jam.

Fine, I'll hack my way for now and I moved all the code from 
verbatim.jam to Jamroot. That one sort of fixed the problem, except that 
build log looks a bit awkward (due to the fact that Jamroot's name 
consists of full path to the file), but that's a hack anyways, no big deal.

First question: what is the proper fix for this problem?

Secondly, my use case is a bit different from verbatim example, in a 
sense that I generate an .hpp file from multiple sources. So my 
invocation is explicit:

hpp generated.hpp : source1 source2 ;
lib util : util.cpp ;

Obviously util.cpp has #include "generated.hpp"

Second question: will lib rule pick up dependency on generated.hpp and 
realize that it has to regenerate it (if needed) before compiling util.cpp?

Third question: the whole setup currently does not work, because 
generated.hpp gets created in build directory, but that said directory 
is not added to includes when compiling util.cpp. What is the right way 
to fix that?

I am using quite recent CVS version of BBv2, compiling with msvc 8 in 
native windows (not cygwin) shell.

Apologies for lengthy e-mail, and thanks a bunch in advance for your help.

Regards,
Kirill Lapshin

PS: BTW, does anyone have toolset for ANTLR?