Re: cmake support

[Kamil Dudka <kdudka@redhat.com>]

On Saturday, January 5, 2019 6:53:06 PM CET Bruno Haible wrote:
> Hi,
> 
> Andrew Pennebaker wrote:
> > Could we improve how gnulib integrates with downstream projects, to make
> > it
> > easier to work with different build tools? In particular, would be helpful
> > for gnulib to easily work with cmake projects.
> > 
> > In my case, I have an application that needs openat(), and I already have
> > a
> > complex cmake configuration that would be difficult to rewrite in terms of
> > autotools.
> 
> I don't think we will spend time to make gnulib-tool generate cmake
> configurations.
>   1. Because the GNU build system is based on Autotools.
>   2. Because many people say that cmake is a horror to use. [1][2]

That is not an argument.  You can find similar horror stories about autotools:

    http://voices.canonical.com/jussi.pakkanen/2011/09/13/autotools/

> But gnulib-tool by design creates a subdirectory, and you can yourself
>   - add a simple configure.ac to that subdirectory, as outlined in the
>     documentation [3],

When I needed it 10 years ago, I was able to get around this limitation by 
using the --create-testdir option of gnulib-tool.  It created a directory
with configure script that (after running make) produced a static library.
I am not sure if this approach had any side effects, like turning on debug 
build, but I was at least not forced to create configure.ac etc.

Kamil

>   - integrate this subdirectory with cmake through an 'ExternalProject' [4].
> 
> If, during this process, you encounter pain points that require (small)
> gnulib-tool changes, please come back to us and report them.
> 
> Bruno
> 
> [1]
> https://www.reddit.com/r/cpp/comments/4flb8z/fighting_through_a_cmake_hell/
> [2]
> https://www.reddit.com/r/cpp/comments/7yps20/its_time_to_do_cmake_right/
> [3]
> https://www.gnu.org/software/gnulib/manual/html_node/Initial-import.html
> [4]
> https://stackoverflow.com/questions/5971921/building-a-library-using-autoto
> ols-from-cmake