Dynamically generated dependencies - cmake

I am trying to generate file that depends on a set of files that can
change throughout different make invocations.
To understand it better, let's show you the code:
cmake_minimum_required(VERSION 2.8)
project(demo-one C)
add_custom_command(
OUTPUT
"${CMAKE_BINARY_DIR}/generated.c"
COMMAND
generate -o "${CMAKE_BINARY_DIR}/generated.c"
DEPENDS
"$(shell generate-dependencies-list)"
COMMENT
"Generating generated.c"
)
add_executable(main main.c "${CMAKE_BINARY_DIR}/generated.c")
So, I want to generate the file generated.c with the generate
command and this files needs to be regenerated when the files
specified by generated-dependencies-list command changes. As you may
notice, generated-dependencies-list can generate different set of
files throughout make invocations, so is not feasible to get
the result of generated-dependencies-list at configure time to then
pass the result to add_custom_command.
Actually the above code somewhat works, but it looks like a hack that
will only work for Makefile backend, also the make rule doesn't look
as what I'm expecting, after all, it's a hack:
generated.c: ../$(shell\ generate-dependencies-list)
Basically, I want this rule or something to get the same result:
generated.c: $(shell generate-dependencies-list)
Has CMake any feature to achieve this?

when the files specified by generated-dependencies-list command changes
If the output of the command generated-dependencies-list depends only on this script and script's parameters then you can just add this script to DEPENDS sub-option:
add_custom_command(
OUTPUT
"${CMAKE_BINARY_DIR}/generated.c"
COMMAND
"${CMAKE_CURRENT_LIST_DIR}/generate-dependencies-list"
COMMAND
generate -o "${CMAKE_BINARY_DIR}/generated.c"
DEPENDS
"${CMAKE_CURRENT_LIST_DIR}/generate-dependencies-list"
COMMENT
"Generating generated.c"
)

Related

How can I get dependency tracking for a copy of a target file when target-based genex for add_custom_command's OUTPUT param is not supported?

This is a follow-up to How can I get a target's output-file's name during CMake's configuration phase (not the generation phase)?
I want to achieve something similar to the below:
add_custom_command(
OUTPUT ${CMAKE_BINARY_DIR}/to_zip/$<TARGET_FILE_NAME:Foo>
DEPENDS Foo
COMMAND ${CMAKE_COMMAND} -E copy $<TARGET_FILE:Foo>
${CMAKE_BINARY_DIR}/to_zip/$<TARGET_FILE_NAME:Foo>)
list(APPEND ALL_FILES_IN_TO_ZIP
${CMAKE_BINARY_DIR}/to_zip/$<TARGET_FILE_NAME:Foo>)
add_custom_command(
OUTPUT ${CMAKE_BINARY_DIR}/myzip.zip
DEPENDS ${ALL_FILES_IN_TO_ZIP}
COMMAND <zip everything up in ${CMAKE_BINARY_DIR}/to_zip>)
add_custom_target(create-zip DEPENDS ${CMAKE_BINARY_DIR}/to_zip/myzip.zip)
Basically, when I invoke the create-zip target, I want to copy a lot of files to ${CMAKE_BINARY_DIR}/to_zip, and then zip up everything in it. The issue with the above code is that I am not allowed to use target based generator expression for OUTPUT in add_custom_command, so the above code doesn't work. From the CMake docs:
New in version 3.20: Arguments to OUTPUT may use a restricted set of generator expressions. Target-dependent expressions are not permitted.
Is there a way to workaround this problem to make it work?
I'm pretty sure you don't need to use the name of the target's output file as the OUTPUT of your custom command which does the copy. All you're really using the OUTPUT field for is CMake's dependency mechanisms (where it tracks what things have changed and does things again if anything in DEPENDS has changed (modification time in the filesystem)). You can just create a dummy file that you touch (update the modification time for in the filesystem) whenever the target has changed and once its copy has been made.
set(targets target_foo target_bar target_baz)
foreach(target "${targets}")
set(indicator "${CMAKE_BINARY_DIR}/to_zip/rezip_indicators/${target}")
add_custom_command(
OUTPUT "${rezip_indicator_file}"
DEPENDS "${target}"
COMMAND "${CMAKE_COMMAND}" -E copy $<TARGET_FILE:${target}>
"${CMAKE_BINARY_DIR}/to_zip/$<TARGET_FILE_NAME:${target}>"
COMMAND "${CMAKE_COMMAND}" -E touch "${rezip_indicator_file}"
)
list(APPEND NEEDS_REZIP_INDICATOR_FILES "${rezip_indicator_file}")
endforeach()
add_custom_command(
OUTPUT "${CMAKE_BINARY_DIR}/myzip.zip"
DEPENDS "${NEEDS_REZIP_INDICATOR_FILES}"
COMMAND <zip everything up in ${CMAKE_BINARY_DIR}/to_zip>
)
add_custom_target(create-zip DEPENDS "${CMAKE_BINARY_DIR}/to_zip/myzip.zip")
Or something to that effect.
The indicator file will get its timestamp updated by the touch command in the custom command when the target file has changed. The target file and the needs-rezip indicator file get "synced" when the custom command runs, which will be whenever you run the buildsystem after the target has gotten rebuilt. At least- I'm pretty sure that's how things work.

How to rerun cmake custom command, when one of its dependencies becomes "dirty"?

I have python script that is run through add_custom_command in my project, this script analyzes target sources and generate additional one for the target.
get_target_property(TARGET_SOURCES ${target} SOURCES)
add_custom_command(
OUTPUT ${CMAKE_BINARY_DIR}/static_init/generated/${target}/static_init.cpp
COMMAND ${Python3_EXECUTABLE} myscript.py
DEPENDS ${TARGET_SOURCES}
VERBATIM)
target_sources( "${target}" PRIVATE "${CMAKE_BINARY_DIR}/static_init/generated/${target}/static_init.cpp" )
I need my script to rerun when one of sources becomes "dirty" (e.g. one of included headers is changed, probably this file is in another target and it is not guaranteed that another target will be rebuild on header change). As we use Ninja, IMPLICIT_DEPENDS isn't available for us, so it looks DEPFILE property is the way to do it, but I cannot understand, how can I get one for all ${TARGET_SOURCES}?
It doesn't seem to me that ninja will generate something like that automatically, I cannot write it by hands, as it will require to recursively analyze all includes during cmake run. Or maybe there is another way to solve this problem?
To get dependencies of a source you have to compile it. Just depend on the target. I would do:
add_custom_target(target_objects OBJECT all_source_files_for_your_target)
add_custom_command(
OUTPUT ${CMAKE_BINARY_DIR}/static_init/generated/${target}/static_init.cpp
COMMAND ${Python3_EXECUTABLE} myscript.py
DEPENDS $<TARGET_OBJECTS:target_objects>
VERBATIM
)
add_custom_library/executable("${target}" PRIVATE
${CMAKE_BINARY_DIR}/static_init/generated/${target}/static_init.cpp
)
link_target_libraries("${target}" PRIVATE target_objects)
That way the dependencies are linear.

add_custom_target multiple dependencies provided by a list

set(OUTPUT_PATH "some_path/some_path2/")
set(NAME_XML "external/some_folder/somexml.xml")
set(OUTPUT_DIRECTORY "header1.h" "header2.h" "header3.h")
add_custom_target(
some_target ALL
DEPENDS ${OUTPUT_PATH}header1.h
DEPENDS ${OUTPUT_PATH}header2.h
......
)
foreach(item ${OUTPUT_DIRECTORY})
message(STATUS "testing..." ${item})
add_custom_command(
COMMAND python3 ${OUTPUT_PATH}/main.py -n "1" -p "${OUTPUT_PATH}" -f "${NAME_XML}" -o "${item}"
DEPENDS ${NAME_XML}
OUTPUT ${OUTPUT_PATH}${item}
COMMENT "some comment: ${item}"
)
endforeach(item)
The goal of this work is for python script to be called if the header file is not found (for each case) or has been modified. Similarly, if the XML file has been modified, I want to regenerate all header files by calling the python script.
The python script allows us to pass individual header files to be generated which is why I have this "foreach". As a result, I want to call it only per the requirements in the above paragraph.
How I can modify the code to achieve that and how I can include the OUTPUT_DIRECTORY as a list in the add_custom_target rather than adding DEPENDS in each line individually as per my code example?

CMake: add dependency to add_custom_command dynamically

I have a CMake project with many subprojects.
Each of them can use a function I provide to generate a small text file with some certain information (by calling add_custom_command).
At the final step I'd like to combine all those files into one big text file.
I've created a custom command which searches for created files (all in one place) and merges them.
The problem is that I'd like to make this final step dependend on all of small steps being made in subprojects while I don't actually know how many files will be provided.
My final command looks like:
add_custom_command(OUTPUT combination.txt
COMMAND create combination.txt from all files from /path/)
and my create-small-text-file-for-each-subproject command looks like:
add_custom_command(OUTPUT /path/${sub_project_name}.txt
COMMAND create /path/${sub_project_name}.txt)
And when I create those small files I'd like to do something like to make "combination.txt" depend on /path/${sub_project_name}.txt
So I wish I could:
add_dependency(combination.txt /path/${sub_project_name}.txt)
However this only works for targets.
I've also tried to use set_source_files_properties with OBJECT_DEPENDS, but it seems to doesn't work (maybe its intend to be used with add_target's cpp files ?)
The last way to get it work I see is to use a cache variable which would accumulate all those small files paths and then use it like this:
add_custom_command(OUTPUT combination.txt
COMMAND create combination.txt from all files from /path/
DEPENDS ${all_small_files_list})
but this is the last thing I want to do.
Instead of using add_custom_command you could use add_custom_target with a correct dependency-definition (so that is it not built every time).
add_custom_target(project
COMMAND touch project.txt)
add_custom_target(project2
COMMAND touch project2.txt)
add_custom_target(combination
COMMAND cat project.txt project2.txt > combination.txt)
add_dependencies(combination project2)
add_dependencies(combination project)
add_executable(t t.c)
add_dependencies(t combination.txt)
Again: make sure you're using the DEPENDS argument of add_custom_target to create a real dependency chain so that a project-target and thus the combination-target gets out of date.
UPDATE: I was too premature. In fact cmake (at least up to 2.8.9) works as follows for dependencies: with a call to add_dependencies you cannot add a dependency which is the OUTPUT of a custom command IOW a (generated) file. With add_dependencies you can only add target as created by add_custom_target. However in a add_custom_target you can depend on an output of add_custom_command by using the DEPENDS-directive. That said this makes it work:
add_custom_command(OUTPUT project.txt
COMMAND uptime >> project.txt MAIN_DEPENDENCY t2.c)
add_custom_target(project DEPENDS project.txt)
add_custom_target(combination
COMMAND cat project.txt project2.txt > combination.txt)
add_dependencies(combination project)
This will make the combination target always be regenerated as it has no MAIN_DEPENDENCY or DEPENDS, but the usage of add_dependencies is allowed.

How to write a custom command that runs whenever a file A is newer than file B?

I need to write a custom command that runs whenever file A is newer than file B.
How do I do this in CMake?
Sounds like you want something similar to this:
add_custom_command(OUTPUT B
COMMAND ${CMAKE_COMMAND} -Dinput=A -P script_that_generates_B.cmake
DEPENDS A
)
Where "B" is the full path to the output file, "A" is the full path to some input file, and the command is something that runs at build time to produce B whenever A changes.
In order for the rule producing B to be executed at build time, something else must depend on B also. It should appear either as a DEPENDS of an add_custom_target that is in "all" or as a source file to an add_library or add_executable command to trigger the command to run.
EDIT:
You can also use the
if(file1 IS_NEWER_THAN file2)
construct at CMake configure time, if necessary. The documentation of the IF command is rather lengthy, but searching on this page for IS_NEWER_THAN yields this nugget:
"True if file1 is newer than file2 or if one of the two files doesn't exist. Behavior is well-defined only for full paths."