[cmake-developers] New property scope for install()ed files?

[Nils Gladitz]

On 05/19/2014 07:42 PM, Brad King wrote:
> On 05/16/2014 04:56 PM, Nils Gladitz wrote:
>> I write the properties file at generation time rather than configuration
>> time ... perhaps generator expressions could be allowed for keys?
>
> So far generator expressions are allowed only when the content will be
> evaluated on a per-configuration basis.  Since installation requires
> a specific configuration to be chosen, this is well-defined.  However,
> the implementation will have to take care of loading the properties
> for the matching configuration at the right time.

I was looking at cmTestGenerator and found cmScriptGenerator which seems 
to already generalize this somewhat.

This requires a variable with the current configuration to be available 
when the properties are loaded.

CPack currently sets CPACK_BUILD_CONFIG after reading CPackConfig.cmake 
(I include my properties file from it) but it should be possible to 
reverse that without breaking anything(?).

>
>> If they were set by install() itself there would need to be some sort of
>> disambiguation in case there are multiple files being installed (like
>> there already is for DESTINATION).
>
> Yes, and the same mechanism could probably work.  We don't have to
> implement it for install() now, I was just using that example as a
> reason to choose the name "INSTALL" for the set/get_property commands.

I changed the scope name to "INSTALL" and prefixed the two existing 
properties with "CPACK_".

>
> We also need a name clearer than "install property" to refer to these.
> Perhaps "install file property" (like current "source file property")?

I used "installed file property".
I kind of like how it disambiguates the fact that the property applies 
to the destination rather than the source file of the installation but I 
am not a native english speaker so perhaps it doesn't make as much sense 
as I hope it does.

> FYI, some updates to code in Utilities/Sphinx will be needed so that
> these properties can be documented in a location like Help/prop_inst.

I didn't really know what I was doing but I duplicated the code specific 
to one of the other properties and added documentation for my first two 
properties.

Thanks again for your feedback!

Nils