[Boost-build] Getting product dependencies from bjam

Subject: [Boost-build] Getting product dependencies from bjam
From: Mark E. Hamilton (mhamilt_at_[hidden])
Date: 2013-12-16 11:41:57

Hi,

We have a code tree with a number of interrelated products and TPLs; 
we've been using bjam for a number of years as the build system, but the 
developer with the most knowledge of our system moved elsewhere a while 
ago. Historically we've distributed out products as two packages, but 
recently we have been getting requests to distribute pieces of it.

We don't have an easy of identifying the sub-products and TPLs required 
to be able to distribute just one product and be able to build it. I was 
able to do so manually by building just one product in a clean project 
and gleaning the names of the products from the results in the object 
tree. This is unfortunately incomplete, however, because it doesn't 
include dependencies that do not generate objects or libraries.

Is there way to get bjam to output a list of all dependencies of a 
specified target in a format that we could then parse to extract the 
top-level product and TPLs required to build that target? My first 
thought was this:

bjam -d1 -k -a  -n  .. /some//target | sed parse_my_products

but like my manual attempt it only produces a list of things that 
actually generate objects. Any guidance would be appreciated. Thanks.

-- 
----------------
Mark E. Hamilton
Senior Member of Technical Staff
Sandia National Laboratories
505-844-7666