Re: [Boost-build] Generating multiple CPP/H targets from a single source

Subject: Re: [Boost-build] Generating multiple CPP/H targets from a single source
From: Tyson Marchuk (tmarchuk_at_[hidden])
Date: 2010-07-28 17:05:58

  Well after much stumbling around and adding print outs all over to the 
base functionality of Boost.Build I think I figured out what was going 
on and got this working. Just posting the 'solution' in case anyone else 
has this problem and needs it in the future.

The problem was with the qt4.jam moc generator:
<code>
     generators.register-standard qt4.moc : H : CPP(moc_%) ;
</code>

As such Boost.Build was checking for a way to get to an EXE and found a 
path where it went:
MYGEN->H->CPP->OBJ->EXE
But since my generator also went directly to CPP it also found (the 
correct):
MYGEN->CPP->OBJ->EXE

Turns out that I really didn't need to say that my generator created H 
targets as these targets don't need to be processed except as includes. 
(At least this seems to be the case, I'm far from an expert on this.) So 
to get things working I just removed that from the registration line.
 From this:
<code>
generators.register [ new my-generator mytype.mytype : MYGEN : CPP H ] ;
</code>

To this:
<code>
generators.register [ new my-generator mytype.mytype : MYGEN : CPP ] ;
</code>

Also there is a mistake in the action I posted as it only needs the 
output directory once so it looks more like this now:
<code>
actions mygen
{
     mygenExecutable -commandLineOptions -outputDirectoryOption 
$(<[1]:D) $(>)
}
</code>
Boost.Build only calls this once for the 6 targets but passes the list 
of outputs to it so the tool was getting confused.

Hope this helps someone else out there like me save a lot of time.

-Tyson

On 2010/07/27 5:23 PM, Tyson Marchuk wrote:
>  I found another post on the web where an example of creating 5 
> targets was given and required creating a custom generator. I've tried 
> to do that but it results in similar errors. Code attempted below:
> <code>
> # Create a generator to handle the IDL, XML, XSD, WSDL to CPP/H file
> # conversion. 1 source, 6 targets.
> class my-generator : generator
> {
>    import "class" : new ;
>
>    rule __init__ ( * : * )
>    {
>       generator.__init__ $(1) : $(2) : $(3) : $(4) : $(5) : $(6) : 
> $(7) : $(8) : $(9) ;
>    }
>
>    rule run ( project name ? : property-set : sources * )
>    {
>       # Accept only a single source
>       if ! $(sources[2])
>       {
>          # Make sure it is of type MYGEN.
>          local srcType = [ $(sources[1]).type ] ;
>          if $(srcType) = MYGEN
>          {
>             # If no output name is specified, guess it from the sources.
>             if ! $(name)
>             {
>                local srcName = [ $(sources[1]).name ] ;
>                name = $(srcName:B) ;
>             }
>
>             # Produce 6 outputs using a single action on the single 
> source.
>             local mygenAction = [ new action $(sources[1]) : 
> mytype.mygen : $(property-set) ] ;
>             local tgtBaseCpp = [ new file-target $(name) : CPP : 
> $(project) : $(mygenAction) ] ;
>             local tgtPluginCpp = [ new file-target $(name)Plugin : CPP 
> : $(project) : $(mygenAction) ] ;
>             local tgtSupportCpp = [ new file-target $(name)Support : 
> CPP : $(project) : $(mygenAction) ] ;
>             local tgtBaseH = [ new file-target $(name) : H : 
> $(project) : $(mygenAction) ] ;
>             local tgtPluginH = [ new file-target $(name)Plugin : H : 
> $(project) : $(mygenAction) ] ;
>             local tgtSupportH = [ new file-target $(name)Support : H : 
> $(project) : $(mygenAction) ] ;
>
>             # Register all the built targets and return them.
>             # NOTE: return doesn't cause control to exit function.
>             return [ virtual-target.register $(tgtBaseCpp) ]
>                    [ virtual-target.register $(tgtPluginCpp) ]
>                    [ virtual-target.register $(tgtSupportCpp) ]
>                    [ virtual-target.register $(tgtBaseH) ]
>                    [ virtual-target.register $(tgtPluginH) ]
>                    [ virtual-target.register $(tgtSupportH) ] ;
>          }
>       }
>    }
> }
> ...
> generators.register [ new my-generator mytype.mytype : MYGEN : CPP H ] ;
> ...
>
> actions mygen
> {
>     mygenExecutable -commandLineOptions $(<:D) $(>)
> }
>
> </code>
>
> On 2010/07/27 11:52 AM, Tyson Marchuk wrote:
>>  Hello,
>>
>> I'm trying to add a Boost.Build generator, to handle a code generator 
>> tool, to my Boost.Build configuration. The code generator takes in a 
>> single IDL, XML, XSD, or WSDL file and generates six CPP and H files, 
>> three of each. I'm struggling with how to add this to Boost.Build. Do 
>> I need to write a custom generator or can I just register a standard 
>> one and add a rule/action?
>>
>> Note that I'm using Boost Build version 2 milestone 10 so perhaps I 
>> need to upgrade to get this to work?
>>
>> I tried the following (and a few variations):
>>
>> <code>
>> type MYGEN : idl xml xsd wsdl ;
>>
>> generators.register-standard mytype.mygen : MYGEN : CPP CPP(%Plugin) 
>> CPP (%Support) H H(%Plugin) H(%Support) ;
>>
>> rule mygen ( targets + : source : properties * )
>> {
>>     DEPENDS $(targets) : $(source) ;
>> }
>>
>> actions mygen
>> {
>>     mygenExecutable -commandLineOptions $(<:D) $(>)
>> }
>> </code>
>>
>> My Jamfile contains:
>> <code>
>> exe testExecutable
>>     :
>>     AFile.idl
>>     AnotherFile.cxx
>>     : <include>.
>>     ;
>> </code>
>>
>> This gets stuck in generators.jam:1088 in construct-really with error:
>> Ambiguity found when searching for best transformation
>>
>> I added a bunch of debugging statements to the various builtin Jam 
>> files and it seems like Boost.Build is trying to make an EXE from 
>> AFile.idl and AnotherFile.cxx which is correct. It then drills down 
>> into AFile.idl and says it's using the LIB generator (not sure why it 
>> would do that??) Tries to construct the LIB from an OBJ and the OBJ 
>> from a CPP, etc. It eventually dies when it tries to find a generator 
>> for an H.
>>
>> I'm not really sure what the proper way to do what I want is. Perhaps 
>> there's an example somewhere of how to do something similar I can 
>> learn from? I don't see anything similar in the examples included 
>> with milestone 10 but maybe I just missed it?
>>
>> Thanks,
>> -Tyson
>>
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