[CMake] Custom message if target fails

[Attila Krasznahorkay]

Hi Daniel,

You could even do it in a *much* more general way.

We write custom log files about our builds by providing a "replacement" for the ctest executable. So that when we configure the build with

-DCTEST_USE_LAUNCHERS

, our script would catch *all* the build commands. (To have a chance to put the commands and their results into various log files. We forward the actual build command execution to the "normal" ctest executable.) You could use such a script to print a custom failure message.

Cheers,
           Attila

> On 12 Nov 2015, at 09:43, Daniel Schepler <dschepler at scalable-networks.com> wrote:
> 
> I'm assuming this is under a Unix platform - in my experience, on Windows, I get the color escape codes even running cmake builds under Jenkins.  On Unix platforms, you could install expect and use the unbuffer tool, e.g. "unbuffer make -j8 -k".
> -- 
> Daniel Schepler
> ________________________________________
> From: CMake [cmake-bounces at cmake.org] on behalf of Daniel Wirtz [daniel.wirtz at simtech.uni-stuttgart.de]
> Sent: Thursday, November 12, 2015 2:05 AM
> To: cmake at cmake.org
> Subject: Re: [CMake] Custom message if target fails
> 
> Hey,
> 
> neat idea, i've tried and it works (i have custom targets there).
> However, the "nice" colored build text output of such a solution gets
> lost completely (pipes etc); are there any alternative ideas/solutions?
> 
> thanks again!
> 
> Dr. Daniel Wirtz
> Dipl. Math. Dipl. Inf.
> SRC SimTech
> Pfaffenwaldring 5a
> +49 711 685 60044
> 
> On 11/12/2015 10:10 AM, Nils Gladitz wrote:
>> On 11/12/2015 09:54 AM, Daniel Wirtz wrote:
>>> Dear all,
>>> 
>>> i've been thinking on this for a while but i can't seem to get my
>>> head around how to solve this.
>>> The task is simple: How can i display a custom error message if a
>>> target fails to build for whatever reason?
>>> - cmake ..
>>> - make
>>> - <build starts, stuff goes wrong, error out>
>>> - below the (compile-tool dependent error output) i'd like to print
>>> something like "Whoops it went wrong, type this and that or visit
>>> this or that website for help"
>>> 
>> 
>> There is no generic build system feature for this.
>> 
>> You haven't provided any details on what kind of target this concerns
>> or what is to be diagnosed specifically but ...
>> 
>> Assuming this is a custom target / custom command you could replace
>> the actual command with a wrapper (e.g. cmake -P script) that:
>>    - runs the actual command (e.g. execute_process())
>>    - outputs a message based on the actual command's exit status
>> (e.g. message("This and that"))
>>    - exits with (roughly) the same exit status as the actual command
>> (e.g. message(FATAL_ERROR) on failure))
>> 
>> For regular build targets (executables, libraries) there is nothing to
>> be done at build time.
>> Depending on what it is you are actually diagnosing you might want to
>> try to diagnose it during configuration rather than during the build.
>> 
>> Nils
> 
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