Cmake: how to run bash command only when a file is updated? - cmake

I am trying to write a CMakeLists.txt to speed up compilation.
The executable depends on a script generated .cpp file: I use the cppcms web application library which has a templating system where .tmpl must be converted to .cpp files during the compilation like this:
cppcms_tmpl_cc page.tmpl -o page.cpp
There are related questions that cover the use of bash commands within cmake:
How to run a command at compile time within Makefile generated by CMake?
CMake : how to use bash command in CMakeLists.txt
These questions cover most of my needs.
What I want to know, now, is how to tell cmake to run the above command and re-generate page.cpp every time page.tmpl itself has changed, and only then?
The goal obviously is to improve the compile time and have an up to date binary with the latest template.
(can a moderator add the cppcms tag?)
[Edit: I am actually trying to convert the following Makefile to cmake:
LIBS=-lcppcms -lconfig++ -lboost_filesystem-mt
all: clean gitbrowser
gitbrowser: main.cpp view.cpp content.hpp gitbrowser.cpp
$(CXX) -Wall main.cpp gitbrowser.cpp view.cpp -o run ${LIBS}
view.cpp: page.tmpl content.hpp
cppcms_tmpl_cc page.tmpl -o view.cpp
[Edit2: I added a note about the solution in the official cppcms wiki:
http://art-blog.no-ip.info/wikipp/en/page/cppcms_1x_howto#How.to.compile.the.templates.with.cmake.

now = get_now_time()
time = get_last_upd_time()
if (now > time)
set (LAST_UPD_TIME time CACHE INTERNAL "Defines last update time of the file" FORCE)
# run bash command here
endif (now > time)
get_now_time and get_last_upd_time are fictional functions, returning timestamps (I guess you can use bash commands to get those timestamps). Then you can compare them and store last modification timestamp into cache.
However, this solution looks ugly for me, as I know if you properly define targets and dependencies between them CMake itself will take care of rebuilding only modified files, doesn't it? Could you show me target definitions?
edit
You can use following CMakeLists.txt (thougn I'm not sure, it's based on my project):
# add main target, the executable file
ADD_EXECUTABLE(gitbrowser main.cpp view.cpp content.hpp gitbrowser.cpp)
# linking it with necessary libraries
TARGET_LINK_LIBRARIES(gitbrowser "cppcms config++ boost_filesystem-mt")
# add page.cpp target
ADD_CUSTOM_COMMAND(
OUTPUT page.cpp
COMMAND "cppcms_tmpl_cc page.tmpl -o view.cpp"
DEPENDS page.tmpl content.hpp
)
# and finally add dependency of the main target
ADD_DEPENDENCIES(gitbrowser page.cpp)
Good luck

Take a look on this CMake file of Wikipp lines 66-72
You basically need something like this:
add_custom_command(
OUTPUT ${CMAKE_CURRENT_BINARY_DIR}/view.cpp
COMMAND cppcms_tmpl_cc
view.tmpl
-o ${CMAKE_CURRENT_BINARY_DIR}/view.cpp
DEPENDS view.tmpl)
Edit: Also if you want to improve compilation speed you may compile
the view into shared object and load it dynamically.
This would also allow you not to restart application if you only changed the view, the
shared object after recompilation would be automatically reloaded.
See: http://art-blog.no-ip.info/wikipp/en/page/cppcms_1x_config#views for more details.

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?

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?

In CMake how do I create a file needed at configure time?

Edit: my question targets the early configure stage where CMake input files are still being parsed and thus have to be present before include() is being called. So the answer found here: Force CMake to generate configure_file target every build does not solve my problem since it generates files after include() statements have been interpreted.
I have a CMakeLists.txt that includes a file which is generated in the configure stage:
execute_process(COMMAND "my-generator -o generated.cmake")
include(generated.cmake)
Apart from the fact that this approach doesn't feel right (not to say elegant) I now need to re-generate that file before every build (my-generator produces output that incorporates the current time).
My assumption is that I can't use add_custom_command() or add_custom_target() because the file would be generated at compile time but needed in the configure-step.
This very old post suggests to touch the input file so I did this:
execute_process(
COMMAND "my-generator -o generated.cmake"
COMMAND cmake -E touch "${CMAKE_CURRENT_LIST_FILE}")
.. which does not produce errors but calling make multiple times won't run the configure step more than once.
What do I do wrong? Is there a better approach?

How to include a cmake Makefile after a target has been executed?

Given the following minimal example.
cmake_minimum_required(VERSION 2.8)
project(include_test)
add_custom_command(OUTPUT OtherCMakeLists.txt
COMMAND "${CMAKE_CURRENT_BINARY_DIR}/create_other_cmakelists")
add_custom_target(do_something DEPENDS OtherCMakeLists.txt)
What do_something should do here is first create OtherCMakeLists.txt. Now, let's assume that do_something has to do something else afterwards, e.g. compiling some code. I'd like that when the targets from something else are executed, the CMakeLists.txt will behave as if OtherCMakeLists.txt was included with include.
Is this possible?
As an example why this could be useful: OtherCMakeLists.txt might add some compiler flags that have influence on further compiling.
To my knowledge, it is not possible to generate CMakeLists.txt file with a custom target/command and use include CMake command with generated CMakeLists.txt
The problem is that the include command is called at so-called "Configuration time" (when cmake executable tries to parse all CMakeLists.txt), but the generation of file (CMakeLists.txt) is performed at "Build time" (when make command is invoked on generated build system)
add_custom_command has 2 different signatures:
add_custom_command(OUTPUT ...) will be executed at build time, too late to apply rules from a generated CMakeLists.txt generated.
add_custom_command(TARGET ...) to attach a specific command to a target. This command can be run on PRE_BUILD, PRE_LINK or POST_BUILD. Probably not what you want to achieve...
If you are trying to add some dynamic to your compile process, adding custom commands or target may not be your best option.
You should try to read doc for some other CMake commands that can be helpful in your case:
configure_file() that can process a file (OtherCMakeLists.txt.in) into another file (OtherCMakeLists.txt) replacing variables by their values. This is achieved at configuration time
execute_process() to run a command a configuration time (thx to #ComicSansMS)
set_target_properties() to set some compiler or link flags to a specific target depending on some conditions
The list of properties you can set on targets

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?