[CMake] Help on ExternalProject_Add

[Luigi Calori]

Thanks a lot,
Your suggestion worked really well, I ' m now able to separate download 
source and build into two separate projects,
I have added a <STAMP_DIR> line into source building project to keep git 
download stamp out of binary dir and side to source, so
even if i completely empty the binary dir, the source project does not 
get rebuilt

Regarding passing vars from "meta" project to external slave projects, 
for cache variables, the TYPE can be found by doing

get_property(mytype CACHE ${myvar} PROPERTY TYPE) but I do not have 
found any way to get it.
Is due to my ignorance or really variables have no type defined?

Thanks again

Luigi


On 10/02/2011 8.39, Jean-Christophe Fillion-Robin wrote:
> Hi Luigi,
>
> You will find some comments below ...
>
> Jc
>
> On Wed, Feb 9, 2011 at 9:07 AM, Luigi Calori <l.calori at cineca.it 
> <mailto:l.calori at cineca.it>> wrote:
>
>     Hi everybody,
>     I' m trying to use ExternalProject to wrap serveral building
>     recipies for different packages I have to use:
>     I am taking the habit of using it as a replacement of shell
>     scripts or manual session for building from source.
>     In my usage I found some problems, possibly due to my ignorance,
>     so please forgive me:
>
>     1) I would like to build the same package from the same source
>     multiple times (for example because I need to change some config
>     (shared/non shared)
>        or build (debug /release) ... I would like to keep a common
>     source dir across the different builds...
>        So I tried to specify a source dir outside binary dir, but the
>      the download and patch steps seem repeated even if the source is
>     already present
>        (the download step can be   saved)
>        Is this behavior intended or am I missing something?
>        I have tried to split the projects in two: one that download
>     and patch the source and another that build it, but
>        unfortunately the build only project complain that is source
>     dir is empty at meta-project configure time.
>
>
> Have a look at the CMakeLists.txt enclosed. It basically checkout a 
> project using a first external project and then configure+built in 
> second external project depending on the first one.
>
>
>       The problem seems that the stamp files that decide weather a
>     step has to be executed, are collected on the same STAMP_DIR:
>       For a previous version of the module, I patched it by adding a
>     SOURCE_STAMP_DIR that differentiate the folder where the stamps
>     files are kept,
>       between  download and patch step, and the other stepsI.
>       could that be generally useful? In case I could try to dive in
>     and file a feature request + patch
>
>
>     2) Regarding VCS, I see that CVS, SVN and GIT are now supported,
>     I' ve to use also Bazaar and Mercurial,
>        is it possible to use DOWNLOAD_COMMAND for addressing those,
>     are there any examples?
>        otherwise would it be useful to add new BZR_REPOSITORY and
>     HG_REPOSITORY commands?
>
> You will have to use both the DOWNLOAD and the UPDATE command.
>
> I am not familiar with bazaar or mercurial .. but if the "initial 
> checkout or clone" and the following "update or pull" associated with 
> these repository can be achieved using a single command line. It 
> should be pretty straightforward.
>
> Otherwise, you  could either:
>
>   - create a cmake files that could be invoked as download and update 
> command  (${CMAKE_COMMAND} -P 
> /path/to/your/bazaar-download-script.cmake, ${CMAKE_COMMAND} -P 
> /path/to/your/bazaar-update-script.cmake)
>
>   - patch ExternalProject and submit a patch
>
>
>     3) In case of Cmake based projects,  there seem no way to inherit
>      variables or settings from the "meta" project into the
>     ExternalProject apart from explicitly listing
>        definition variables as CMAKE_ARGS -Dvar1:var1type=${var1}
>     -Dvar2:var2type=${var2} .
>        Is that tue or there is some other way to do it? ... 
>
> Option and cmake variables defined in the "meta" project could be used 
> to configure any external project. As of today, there is no way of 
> automatically guessing with which External project these options and 
> variables should be assigned to.
> That means the options should be explicitly associated with an 
> external project  (using CMAKE_ARGS).
>
>     and in case, is the   vartype needed?
>
>
> Under the hood, cmake is invoked, if no vartype is specified, it 
> default to "UNINITIALIZED". See 
> http://www.cmake.org/cmake/help/cmake-2-8-docs.html#property:TYPE
>
> If you omit to specify the type, the variable won't show in both 
> ccmake and cmake-gui.
>
>
>
>
>     Sorry for the length and thanks a lot in advance
>
>     Luigi
>
>
>
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