[Boost-build] Locating libraries

Subject: [Boost-build] Locating libraries
From: Brian Ravnsgaard Riis (brian_at_[hidden])
Date: 2012-01-05 05:43:00

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Hi,

I've been toying with trying to convert some CMake-based build systems
to b2 Jamfiles, partly because I think it would be interesting to see
how the resulting Jamfiles and CMakeLists.txt files compared,
size-wise as well as "how easy is it to read this and figure out
what's going on". Another reason is that there are several usability
issues with CMake's design I really detest... That's completely
besides the point here, though. :-)

Some builds make extensive use of CMake's ability to locate installed
libraries on the host system. Specifically I am thinking of CMake's
FIND_* commands, FIND_PATH and FIND_LIBRARY foremost among them. These
are used to locate headers and prebuilt libraries. See for instance
http://cmake.org/cmake/help/cmake-2-8-docs.html#command:find_path .

There is also a FIND_PACKAGE command that can be used to locate an
external project and load its settings directly if it is also
CMake-based (if I understand correctly).

Lots of background. So here comes the question: Is it possible to do
some or all of these tasks with b2 directly with the provided command set?

If not, is it possible to implement that functionality, which I assume
would be useful in general to some extent. Would this require
python-port perhaps?

The CMake commands provides the result to the CMakeLists as CMake
variables and also caches the result of these to an external file. Is
such a cache functionality possible with b2? Where the first run of b2
builds some configuration information and caches it, so it might be
skipped next time.

Any input appreciated. I'll keep hacking... :-)

Regards,
 Brian
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