Waiting for targets in a CMake build - cmake

I think I do have a CMake order/parallelism problem.
In my build process, I need to build a tool which is then later used by some other target. This tool is a separate project with a CMakeLists.txt file like this:
project (package-tool LANGUAGES CXX)
set (SOURCES package_tool.cpp)
...
Later in the build, this top level target is referenced by some other target:
...
add_custom_command (OUTPUT "${DST_FILE}"
COMMAND ${PACKAGE_COMMAND} "${DST_FILE}"
COMMAND package-tool.exe -e "${DST_FILE}"
DEPENDS ${PACKAGE_DEPENDENCIES} package-tool)
...
I use ninja for building and the dependencies (ninja -t depends) are looking correctly. Also, the build commands (ninja -t commands) are making sense. But: From time to time, the build fails. The message does not make sense, it reads:
This version of package-tool.exe is not compatible with the version
of Windows you're running.
Because the build runs in parallel (32 processes) I suspect that the package-tool target is not completed when the generated exe is being used in the second target, which might lead to this confusing error message. Again, most of the time the build succeeds but every 10th or 20th run, it fails with that message.
So now my question is:
Is there a way to wait for a tool/target having been finished building in a parallel build in CMake/Ninja ?
Or how do I handle the task of building build tools in the same build process correctly ?
Thank you in advance !

Actually depend on the executable file and run the executable file, not the target. Don't concern yourself with any .exe suffix. Also better don't assume add_custom_command will be run in CMAKE_RUNTIME_OUTPUT_DIRECTORY - if you depend on specific directory explicitly set it with WORKING_DIRECTORY.
add_custom_command (
OUTPUT "${DST_FILE}"
COMMAND ${PACKAGE_COMMAND} "${DST_FILE}"
COMMAND $<TARGET_FILE:package-tool> -e "${DST_FILE}"
DEPENDS ${PACKAGE_DEPENDENCIES} $<TARGET_FILE:package-tool>
)

Related

CMake: How to set dependency from executable to custom command [duplicate]

I'm trying to use add_custom_command to generate a file during the build. The command never seemed to be run, so I made this test file.
cmake_minimum_required( VERSION 2.6 )
add_custom_command(
OUTPUT hello.txt
COMMAND touch hello.txt
DEPENDS hello.txt
)
I tried running:
cmake .
make
And hello.txt was not generated. What have I done wrong?
The add_custom_target(run ALL ... solution will work for simple cases when you only have one target you're building, but breaks down when you have multiple top level targets, e.g. app and tests.
I ran into this same problem when I was trying to package up some test data files into an object file so my unit tests wouldn't depend on anything external. I solved it using add_custom_command and some additional dependency magic with set_property.
add_custom_command(
OUTPUT testData.cpp
COMMAND reswrap
ARGS testData.src > testData.cpp
DEPENDS testData.src
)
set_property(SOURCE unit-tests.cpp APPEND PROPERTY OBJECT_DEPENDS testData.cpp)
add_executable(app main.cpp)
add_executable(tests unit-tests.cpp)
So now testData.cpp will generated before unit-tests.cpp is compiled, and any time testData.src changes. If the command you're calling is really slow you get the added bonus that when you build just the app target you won't have to wait around for that command (which only the tests executable needs) to finish.
It's not shown above, but careful application of ${PROJECT_BINARY_DIR}, ${PROJECT_SOURCE_DIR} and include_directories() will keep your source tree clean of generated files.
Add the following:
add_custom_target(run ALL
DEPENDS hello.txt)
If you're familiar with makefiles, this means:
all: run
run: hello.txt
The problem with two existing answers is that they either make the dependency global (add_custom_target(name ALL ...)), or they assign it to a specific, single file (set_property(...)) which gets obnoxious if you have many files that need it as a dependency. Instead what we want is a target that we can make a dependency of another target.
The way to do this is to use add_custom_command to define the rule, and then add_custom_target to define a new target based on that rule. Then you can add that target as a dependency of another target via add_dependencies.
# this defines the build rule for some_file
add_custom_command(
OUTPUT some_file
COMMAND ...
)
# create a target that includes some_file, this gives us a name that we can use later
add_custom_target(
some_target
DEPENDS some_file
)
# then let's suppose we're creating a library
add_library(some_library some_other_file.c)
# we can add the target as a dependency, and it will affect only this library
add_dependencies(some_library some_target)
The advantages of this approach:
some_target is not a dependency for ALL, which means you only build it when it's required by a specific target. (Whereas add_custom_target(name ALL ...) would build it unconditionally for all targets.)
Because some_target is a dependency for the library as a whole, it will get built before all of the files in that library. That means that if there are many files in the library, we don't have to do set_property on every single one of them.
If we add DEPENDS to add_custom_command then it will only get rebuilt when its inputs change. (Compare this to the approach that uses add_custom_target(name ALL ...) where the command gets run on every build regardless of whether it needs to or not.)
For more information on why things work this way, see this blog post: https://samthursfield.wordpress.com/2015/11/21/cmake-dependencies-between-targets-and-files-and-custom-commands/
This question is pretty old, but even if I follow the suggested recommendations, it does not work for me (at least not every time).
I am using Android Studio and I need to call cMake to build C++ library. It works fine until I add the code to run my custom script (in fact, at the moment I try to run 'touch', as in the example above).
First of,
add_custom_command
does not work at all.
I tried
execute_process (
COMMAND touch hello.txt
)
it works, but not every time!
I tried to clean the project, remove the created file(s) manually, same thing.
Tried cMake versions:
3.10.2
3.18.1
3.22.1
when they work, they produce different results, depending on cMake version, one file or several. This is not that important as long as they work, but that's the issue.
Can somebody shed light on this mystery?

Cmake is failing to call a custom command [duplicate]

I'm trying to use add_custom_command to generate a file during the build. The command never seemed to be run, so I made this test file.
cmake_minimum_required( VERSION 2.6 )
add_custom_command(
OUTPUT hello.txt
COMMAND touch hello.txt
DEPENDS hello.txt
)
I tried running:
cmake .
make
And hello.txt was not generated. What have I done wrong?
The add_custom_target(run ALL ... solution will work for simple cases when you only have one target you're building, but breaks down when you have multiple top level targets, e.g. app and tests.
I ran into this same problem when I was trying to package up some test data files into an object file so my unit tests wouldn't depend on anything external. I solved it using add_custom_command and some additional dependency magic with set_property.
add_custom_command(
OUTPUT testData.cpp
COMMAND reswrap
ARGS testData.src > testData.cpp
DEPENDS testData.src
)
set_property(SOURCE unit-tests.cpp APPEND PROPERTY OBJECT_DEPENDS testData.cpp)
add_executable(app main.cpp)
add_executable(tests unit-tests.cpp)
So now testData.cpp will generated before unit-tests.cpp is compiled, and any time testData.src changes. If the command you're calling is really slow you get the added bonus that when you build just the app target you won't have to wait around for that command (which only the tests executable needs) to finish.
It's not shown above, but careful application of ${PROJECT_BINARY_DIR}, ${PROJECT_SOURCE_DIR} and include_directories() will keep your source tree clean of generated files.
Add the following:
add_custom_target(run ALL
DEPENDS hello.txt)
If you're familiar with makefiles, this means:
all: run
run: hello.txt
The problem with two existing answers is that they either make the dependency global (add_custom_target(name ALL ...)), or they assign it to a specific, single file (set_property(...)) which gets obnoxious if you have many files that need it as a dependency. Instead what we want is a target that we can make a dependency of another target.
The way to do this is to use add_custom_command to define the rule, and then add_custom_target to define a new target based on that rule. Then you can add that target as a dependency of another target via add_dependencies.
# this defines the build rule for some_file
add_custom_command(
OUTPUT some_file
COMMAND ...
)
# create a target that includes some_file, this gives us a name that we can use later
add_custom_target(
some_target
DEPENDS some_file
)
# then let's suppose we're creating a library
add_library(some_library some_other_file.c)
# we can add the target as a dependency, and it will affect only this library
add_dependencies(some_library some_target)
The advantages of this approach:
some_target is not a dependency for ALL, which means you only build it when it's required by a specific target. (Whereas add_custom_target(name ALL ...) would build it unconditionally for all targets.)
Because some_target is a dependency for the library as a whole, it will get built before all of the files in that library. That means that if there are many files in the library, we don't have to do set_property on every single one of them.
If we add DEPENDS to add_custom_command then it will only get rebuilt when its inputs change. (Compare this to the approach that uses add_custom_target(name ALL ...) where the command gets run on every build regardless of whether it needs to or not.)
For more information on why things work this way, see this blog post: https://samthursfield.wordpress.com/2015/11/21/cmake-dependencies-between-targets-and-files-and-custom-commands/
This question is pretty old, but even if I follow the suggested recommendations, it does not work for me (at least not every time).
I am using Android Studio and I need to call cMake to build C++ library. It works fine until I add the code to run my custom script (in fact, at the moment I try to run 'touch', as in the example above).
First of,
add_custom_command
does not work at all.
I tried
execute_process (
COMMAND touch hello.txt
)
it works, but not every time!
I tried to clean the project, remove the created file(s) manually, same thing.
Tried cMake versions:
3.10.2
3.18.1
3.22.1
when they work, they produce different results, depending on cMake version, one file or several. This is not that important as long as they work, but that's the issue.
Can somebody shed light on this mystery?

how to use clang tidy in CMake

I would like to use CMake and clang-tidy in my project, however I see that build times are quite a bit higher when I use this in all the main cmake file:
set(CMAKE_CXX_CLANG_TIDY
clang-tidy-11;
-format-style='file';
-header-filter=${CMAKE_CURRENT_SOURCE_DIR};
)
It is working well, but I don't want to have this build-time penalty every time I build the project during development. Therefore I thought I would make a separate target that builds all, but uses clang-tidy. And when I do a regular debug or release build it does not do any checking. However I don't know how to do this in Cmake. Do I make a custom target with a command "cmake --build" with a target_set_property of CMAKE_CXX_CLANG_TIDY?
This feels rather clunky, so my question is, are there other ways to do this?
however I see that build times are quite a bit higher when I use this in all the main cmake file:
You're going to have to pay for the cost of running clang-tidy sometime or another. It's essentially running the first few phases of a compiler to analyze your code and look for errors.
Setting CMAKE_CXX_CLANG_TIDY runs clang-tidy in line with your build, as you have observed.
This feels rather clunky, so my question is, are there other ways to do this?
Yes. When using the Ninja or Makefile generators, you may set -DCMAKE_EXPORT_COMPILE_COMMANDS=ON at the command line. That will create a file called compile_commands.json in your build folder that the standalone clang-tidy can read.
In sum, at the command line, you would manually run:
$ cmake -G Ninja -S . -B build -DCMAKE_EXPORT_COMPILE_COMMANDS=ON
$ clang-tidy-11 -format-style=file -header-filter=. -p build
The -p flag tells clang-tidy in which directory to find your compile_commands.json.

add_custom_command() not compiling my project glib resources [duplicate]

I'm trying to use add_custom_command to generate a file during the build. The command never seemed to be run, so I made this test file.
cmake_minimum_required( VERSION 2.6 )
add_custom_command(
OUTPUT hello.txt
COMMAND touch hello.txt
DEPENDS hello.txt
)
I tried running:
cmake .
make
And hello.txt was not generated. What have I done wrong?
The add_custom_target(run ALL ... solution will work for simple cases when you only have one target you're building, but breaks down when you have multiple top level targets, e.g. app and tests.
I ran into this same problem when I was trying to package up some test data files into an object file so my unit tests wouldn't depend on anything external. I solved it using add_custom_command and some additional dependency magic with set_property.
add_custom_command(
OUTPUT testData.cpp
COMMAND reswrap
ARGS testData.src > testData.cpp
DEPENDS testData.src
)
set_property(SOURCE unit-tests.cpp APPEND PROPERTY OBJECT_DEPENDS testData.cpp)
add_executable(app main.cpp)
add_executable(tests unit-tests.cpp)
So now testData.cpp will generated before unit-tests.cpp is compiled, and any time testData.src changes. If the command you're calling is really slow you get the added bonus that when you build just the app target you won't have to wait around for that command (which only the tests executable needs) to finish.
It's not shown above, but careful application of ${PROJECT_BINARY_DIR}, ${PROJECT_SOURCE_DIR} and include_directories() will keep your source tree clean of generated files.
Add the following:
add_custom_target(run ALL
DEPENDS hello.txt)
If you're familiar with makefiles, this means:
all: run
run: hello.txt
The problem with two existing answers is that they either make the dependency global (add_custom_target(name ALL ...)), or they assign it to a specific, single file (set_property(...)) which gets obnoxious if you have many files that need it as a dependency. Instead what we want is a target that we can make a dependency of another target.
The way to do this is to use add_custom_command to define the rule, and then add_custom_target to define a new target based on that rule. Then you can add that target as a dependency of another target via add_dependencies.
# this defines the build rule for some_file
add_custom_command(
OUTPUT some_file
COMMAND ...
)
# create a target that includes some_file, this gives us a name that we can use later
add_custom_target(
some_target
DEPENDS some_file
)
# then let's suppose we're creating a library
add_library(some_library some_other_file.c)
# we can add the target as a dependency, and it will affect only this library
add_dependencies(some_library some_target)
The advantages of this approach:
some_target is not a dependency for ALL, which means you only build it when it's required by a specific target. (Whereas add_custom_target(name ALL ...) would build it unconditionally for all targets.)
Because some_target is a dependency for the library as a whole, it will get built before all of the files in that library. That means that if there are many files in the library, we don't have to do set_property on every single one of them.
If we add DEPENDS to add_custom_command then it will only get rebuilt when its inputs change. (Compare this to the approach that uses add_custom_target(name ALL ...) where the command gets run on every build regardless of whether it needs to or not.)
For more information on why things work this way, see this blog post: https://samthursfield.wordpress.com/2015/11/21/cmake-dependencies-between-targets-and-files-and-custom-commands/
This question is pretty old, but even if I follow the suggested recommendations, it does not work for me (at least not every time).
I am using Android Studio and I need to call cMake to build C++ library. It works fine until I add the code to run my custom script (in fact, at the moment I try to run 'touch', as in the example above).
First of,
add_custom_command
does not work at all.
I tried
execute_process (
COMMAND touch hello.txt
)
it works, but not every time!
I tried to clean the project, remove the created file(s) manually, same thing.
Tried cMake versions:
3.10.2
3.18.1
3.22.1
when they work, they produce different results, depending on cMake version, one file or several. This is not that important as long as they work, but that's the issue.
Can somebody shed light on this mystery?

CMake add_custom_command not being run

I'm trying to use add_custom_command to generate a file during the build. The command never seemed to be run, so I made this test file.
cmake_minimum_required( VERSION 2.6 )
add_custom_command(
OUTPUT hello.txt
COMMAND touch hello.txt
DEPENDS hello.txt
)
I tried running:
cmake .
make
And hello.txt was not generated. What have I done wrong?
The add_custom_target(run ALL ... solution will work for simple cases when you only have one target you're building, but breaks down when you have multiple top level targets, e.g. app and tests.
I ran into this same problem when I was trying to package up some test data files into an object file so my unit tests wouldn't depend on anything external. I solved it using add_custom_command and some additional dependency magic with set_property.
add_custom_command(
OUTPUT testData.cpp
COMMAND reswrap
ARGS testData.src > testData.cpp
DEPENDS testData.src
)
set_property(SOURCE unit-tests.cpp APPEND PROPERTY OBJECT_DEPENDS testData.cpp)
add_executable(app main.cpp)
add_executable(tests unit-tests.cpp)
So now testData.cpp will generated before unit-tests.cpp is compiled, and any time testData.src changes. If the command you're calling is really slow you get the added bonus that when you build just the app target you won't have to wait around for that command (which only the tests executable needs) to finish.
It's not shown above, but careful application of ${PROJECT_BINARY_DIR}, ${PROJECT_SOURCE_DIR} and include_directories() will keep your source tree clean of generated files.
Add the following:
add_custom_target(run ALL
DEPENDS hello.txt)
If you're familiar with makefiles, this means:
all: run
run: hello.txt
The problem with two existing answers is that they either make the dependency global (add_custom_target(name ALL ...)), or they assign it to a specific, single file (set_property(...)) which gets obnoxious if you have many files that need it as a dependency. Instead what we want is a target that we can make a dependency of another target.
The way to do this is to use add_custom_command to define the rule, and then add_custom_target to define a new target based on that rule. Then you can add that target as a dependency of another target via add_dependencies.
# this defines the build rule for some_file
add_custom_command(
OUTPUT some_file
COMMAND ...
)
# create a target that includes some_file, this gives us a name that we can use later
add_custom_target(
some_target
DEPENDS some_file
)
# then let's suppose we're creating a library
add_library(some_library some_other_file.c)
# we can add the target as a dependency, and it will affect only this library
add_dependencies(some_library some_target)
The advantages of this approach:
some_target is not a dependency for ALL, which means you only build it when it's required by a specific target. (Whereas add_custom_target(name ALL ...) would build it unconditionally for all targets.)
Because some_target is a dependency for the library as a whole, it will get built before all of the files in that library. That means that if there are many files in the library, we don't have to do set_property on every single one of them.
If we add DEPENDS to add_custom_command then it will only get rebuilt when its inputs change. (Compare this to the approach that uses add_custom_target(name ALL ...) where the command gets run on every build regardless of whether it needs to or not.)
For more information on why things work this way, see this blog post: https://samthursfield.wordpress.com/2015/11/21/cmake-dependencies-between-targets-and-files-and-custom-commands/
This question is pretty old, but even if I follow the suggested recommendations, it does not work for me (at least not every time).
I am using Android Studio and I need to call cMake to build C++ library. It works fine until I add the code to run my custom script (in fact, at the moment I try to run 'touch', as in the example above).
First of,
add_custom_command
does not work at all.
I tried
execute_process (
COMMAND touch hello.txt
)
it works, but not every time!
I tried to clean the project, remove the created file(s) manually, same thing.
Tried cMake versions:
3.10.2
3.18.1
3.22.1
when they work, they produce different results, depending on cMake version, one file or several. This is not that important as long as they work, but that's the issue.
Can somebody shed light on this mystery?