Re: [Boost-build] Proposal to add 'contrib' directory and 'add-extension-path'

From: Vladimir Prus (ghost_at_[hidden])
Date: 2008-04-08 13:32:56

On Sunday 06 April 2008 16:59:09 Roland Schwarz wrote:
> Boost.Build is a great system to write platform independent
> build rules.
> 
> Once you have read through the manuals and "bjam --help" one
> starts to write her own modules. Having read the advice
> from the user guide: "If the extensions will be used on many
> projects, users will thank you for a finishing touch."
> I added a init rule, but got stuck about where to put this
> now. The manual suggest to put it into the project dir.
> This works fine, but fails if you want to use it for use
> as a site-wide repository.
> 
> However it is possible to put the following into
> site-config.jam:
> 
> boost-extension-dirs = /path/to/my/extensions ;
> 
> modules.poke
> 	: BOOST_BUILD_PATH
> 	: [ modules.peek : BOOST_BUILD_PATH ] $(boost-extension-dirs) ;
> 
> While this surely will work, it is non-obvious (at least for
> me it was not) and looks a little hackish. So I propose
> 
> 1) Addition of a add-extension-paths rule to build-system-jam:
> --------------------------------------------------------------
> 
>    rule add-extension-path ( dirs * )
>    {
>         modules.poke
>             : BOOST_BUILD_PATH
>             : [ modules.peek : BOOST_BUILD_PATH ]
>             $(dirs)
>             ;
>    }

I think this would be nice.

> 
> 2) Addition of a 'contrib' subdirectory
> ---------------------------------------
> 
> My second proposal is about modules that users have written, but
> the core maintainers have not had the time to approve for general
> use. Following the practice of other projects I propose to introduce
> a 'contrib' (or similar name) subdirectory within the boost-build
> tree and change the default paths to search also in this directory.
> 
> Once the boost-build maintainers decide that the contributed module
> is mature enough they simply could move it to a more appropriate
> place.
> 
> The documentation should state the fact that modules in contrib
> are unmoderated and could be of different quality than the main
> build system.
> 
> I am proposing this in the hope that more modules from the
> user community can be added to boost-build.

I think this is a good idea. Rene, I think you have a bunch of extension
modules of your own. Do you think putting them to 'contrib' will
make sense?

- Volodya