[vtk-developers] vtk_common dashboard script

[Brad King]

Hi Folks,

Many of Kitware's VTK dashboard scripts share a "vtk_common.cmake"
script that they include after setting some machine-specific values.
I've published a copy in a "dashboard" branch in the VTK.git repo
(as we've done before in the CMake and ITK repositories) so that
others can use it.

If you maintain a VTK dashboard client please visit this page:

 http://www.vtk.org/Wiki/VTK/Git/Dashboard

and consider switching your client script over to use this helper.

This will simplify the process of updating VTK dashboard client
scripts with changes that need to be applied everywhere.  For
example, the upcoming ExternalData feature will be more efficient
if all dashboard clients add the line

 ExternalData_OBJECT_STORES:STRING=${CTEST_DASHBOARD_ROOT}/ExternalData

to their initial CMakeCache.txt content.  It will store data in a
persistent location outside of any source or build tree so that each
file needs to be downloaded by a client at most once.  The store is
content-addressed so the files are stateless and do not need to be
refreshed each night.  I've updated the vtk_common.cmake script to
do this but many of the current VTK submissions do not use it.

Thanks,
-Brad