Alias requirements?

[Gevorg Voskanyan]

I feel I must be missing something obvious, but are alias requirements supposed
to work? Consider this simple case:

alias src : a.cpp b.cpp : <define>FOO ;
exe e : main.cpp src ;

Here both a.cpp and b.cpp get built without FOO being defined. Changing 'alias'
with 'lib' fixes the things and causes FOO to be properly defined for a.cpp and
b.cpp.
This is somewhat similar
to http://lists.boost.org/boost-build/2009/04/21616.php, and I really don't see
why either shouldn't
work. http://www.boost.org/boost-build2/doc/html/bbv2/tasks/alias.html seems to
suggest this to be a supported use case (the 'threads' example), so is this a
bug or a misunderstanding of 'alias' on my part?

Thanks,
Gevorg

P.S. Using Boost.Build shipped with Boost 1.44
_______________________________________________
Unsubscribe & other changes: http://lists.boost.org/mailman/listinfo.cgi/boost-build

[Vladimir Prus]

On Monday, November 29, 2010 10:53:17 Gevorg Voskanyan wrote:
> I feel I must be missing something obvious, but are alias requirements
> supposed to work? Consider this simple case:
>
> alias src : a.cpp b.cpp : <define>FOO ;

This says:

        Whenever somebody asks for 'src', take metargets a.cpp and b.cpp, and
       generate them with <define>FOO, then return result.

However, given that a.cpp and b.cpp are source files, generating them merely
creates targets, and <define>FOO is not used in any way.

> exe e : main.cpp src ;
>
> Here both a.cpp and b.cpp get built without FOO being defined. Changing
> 'alias' with 'lib' fixes the things and causes FOO to be properly defined
> for a.cpp and b.cpp.

Yes, because in that case, <define>FOO applies to the 'lib' target, and 'lib'
target can make some use of it.

Does this clarifies things?

--
Vladimir Prus
http://vladimir_prus.blogspot.com
Boost.Build: http://boost.org/boost-build2
_______________________________________________
Unsubscribe & other changes: http://lists.boost.org/mailman/listinfo.cgi/boost-build

[Gevorg Voskanyan]

Vladimir Prus wrote:

> On Monday, November 29, 2010 10:53:17 Gevorg Voskanyan wrote:
> > I feel I  must be missing something obvious, but are alias requirements
> > supposed  to work? Consider this simple case:
> >
> > alias src : a.cpp b.cpp :  <define>FOO ;
>
> This says:
>
>     Whenever  somebody asks for 'src', take metargets a.cpp and b.cpp, and
>         generate them with <define>FOO, then return result.
>
> However, given that a.cpp and b.cpp are source files, generating them  merely
> creates targets, and <define>FOO is not used in any way.

I *think* I see what you mean, however the following variation confuses things
for me again:

obj a : a.cpp ;
obj b : b.cpp ;
alias src : a b : <define>FOO ;

As far as I understand, this time 'a' and 'b' are proper metatargets, and
generating them with <define>FOO should work. But I just tried it and
<define>FOO wasn't present this time either.

> > exe e : main.cpp src ;
> >
> > Here both a.cpp and b.cpp  get built without FOO being defined. Changing
> > 'alias' with 'lib' fixes  the things and causes FOO to be properly defined
> > for a.cpp and  b.cpp.
>
> Yes, because in that case, <define>FOO applies to the 'lib'  target, and 'lib'
> target can make some use of it.
>
> Does this clarifies  things?

> --
> Vladimir  Prus
> http://vladimir_prus.blogspot.com
> Boost.Build:  http://boost.org/boost-build2
_______________________________________________
Unsubscribe & other changes: http://lists.boost.org/mailman/listinfo.cgi/boost-build