[CMake] Building Boost as an ExternalProject

[Michael Powell]

On Mon, Oct 2, 2017 at 2:34 PM, Michael Powell <mwpowellhtx at gmail.com> wrote:
> Hello,
>
> This question has been raised from time to time I think. I am trying
> to build Boost as an ExternalProject, but I am ending up with an
> error: 'cmd.exe' returned with exit code 1. Along these lines.

>From the Boost VC project file:

      <Command Condition="'$(Configuration)|$(Platform)'=='Debug|x64'">setlocal
C:\Dev\CMake\bin\cmake.exe -E make_directory
G:/Source/Spikes/nanomsg/cppnngswig-working/repos/boost
if %errorlevel% neq 0 goto :cmEnd
C:\Dev\CMake\bin\cmake.exe -E make_directory
G:/Source/Spikes/nanomsg/cppnngswig-working/build/boost-prefix/src/boost-build
if %errorlevel% neq 0 goto :cmEnd
C:\Dev\CMake\bin\cmake.exe -E make_directory
G:/Source/Spikes/nanomsg/cppnngswig-working/build/boost-prefix
if %errorlevel% neq 0 goto :cmEnd
C:\Dev\CMake\bin\cmake.exe -E make_directory
G:/Source/Spikes/nanomsg/cppnngswig-working/build/boost-prefix/tmp
if %errorlevel% neq 0 goto :cmEnd
** C:\Dev\CMake\bin\cmake.exe -E make_directory
G:/Source/Spikes/nanomsg/cppnngswig-working/build/boost-prefix/src/boost-stamp/$(Configuration)
** if %errorlevel% neq 0 goto :cmEnd
C:\Dev\CMake\bin\cmake.exe -E make_directory
G:/Source/Spikes/nanomsg/cppnngswig-working/build/boost-prefix/src
if %errorlevel% neq 0 goto :cmEnd
C:\Dev\CMake\bin\cmake.exe -E touch
G:/Source/Spikes/nanomsg/cppnngswig-working/build/boost-prefix/src/boost-stamp/$(Configuration)/boost-mkdir
if %errorlevel% neq 0 goto :cmEnd
:cmEnd
** endlocal & call :cmErrorLevel %errorlevel% & goto :cmDone
:cmErrorLevel
exit /b %1
:cmDone
if %errorlevel% neq 0 goto :VCEnd</Command>

** which line number was the error

Honestly, that does not make much sense since the directories do in fact exist.

The boost-configure-err.log shows this result:

The system cannot find the path specified.
'.\build.bat' is not recognized as an internal or external command,
operable program or batch file.

Which leads me to believe that possibly I need to tell the target to
operate in a more appropriate working directory?

> Perhaps I have involved one too many variables, but I doubt it. Ignore
> the cross-plat stuff, this is building on Windows for the purposes of
> this conversation.
>
> I tried to configure ExternalProject_Add with as much verbosity as
> possible, but unfortunately the process is not especially talkative as
> it turns out. But for the EC 1.
>
> set (BOOST_VERSION  1.65.1)
>
> message (STATUS "Adding Boost ${BOOST_VERSION} as an external project.")
>
> set (BOOST_BOOTSTRAP_PREFIX ${CMAKE_CURRENT_SOURCE_DIR}/boostbuild)
> set (BOOST_INSTALL_PREFIX ${CMAKE_CURRENT_SOURCE_DIR}/boostbuild)
> set (BOOST_BUILD_PREFIX ${BOOST_BOOTSTRAP_PREFIX}/boost)
> set (BOOST_GIT_REPO_DIR ${CMAKE_CURRENT_SOURCE_DIR}/repos/boost)
>
> if (WIN32)
>     set (BOOST_BOOTSTRAP_CMD ${BOOST_GIT_REPO_DIR}/bootstrap.bat)
>     # It was bjam at one point; it is now b2
>     set (BOOST_BUILD_CMD ${BOOST_GIT_REPO_DIR}/b2.exe)
> elseif (UNIX)
>     set (BOOST_BOOTSTRAP_CMD ./${BOOST_GIT_REPO_DIR}/bootstrap.sh)
>     set (BOOST_BUILD_CMD ./${BOOST_GIT_REPO_DIR}/b2)
> endif ()
>
> #  TODO: TBD: For now, assuming only 64-bit address models.
> set (BOOST_ADDR_MODEL 64)
>
> # TODO: TBD: align with the toolchain that we want to build through
> the CMake here... For now assuming:
> if (MSVC_VERSION EQUAL 1900)
>     set (BOOST_TOOLSET msvc-14.0)
> endif ()
>
> ExternalProject_Add (boost
>     # PREFIX ${CMAKE_CURRENT_SOURCE_DIR}/repos/boost
>     GIT_REPOSITORY git at github.com:boostorg/boost.git
>     GIT_TAG boost-${BOOST_VERSION}
>     GIT_PROGRESS ON
>     CMAKE_ARGS -DCMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX:STRING=${BOOST_INSTALL_PREFIX}
>     SOURCE_DIR ${CMAKE_CURRENT_SOURCE_DIR}/repos/boost
>     CONFIGURE_COMMAND ${BOOST_BOOTSTRAP_CMD} --prefix=${BOOST_BOOTSTRAP_PREFIX}
>     # I do not necessarily care about any other Boost build options;
> but that could change the further I get into unit testing, at least so
> long as I will be adopting the test library for usage.
>     BUILD_COMMAND ${BOOST_BUILD_CMD} --with-test
> toolset=${BOOST_TOOLSET} variant=debug link=static stage
> --prefix=${BOOST_BUILD_PREFIX}
>     LOG_DOWNLOAD ON
>     LOG_UPDATE ON
>     LOG_CONFIGURE ON
>     LOG_BUILD ON
>     LOG_INSTALL ON
> )
>
> Cheers,
>
> Michael Powell