Using AM_INIT_AUTOMAKE parameters and configure script command line parameters - linux

Is it possible to use both command line parameters to the configure script, ala:
../configure CXXFLAGS=-O0 -g -foo -bar -bat
while simultaneously keeping any options that are passed to AM_INIT_AUTOMAKE in the configure.ac file? e.g.:
AM_INIT_AUTOMAKE([-Wall -Werror])
My desired result is that ALL of the above flags are passed along, e.g.:
-O0 -g -foo -bar -bat -Wall -Werror
It appears that specifying CXXFLAGS on the command line either ingores or overwrites what is passed into AM_INIT_AUTOMAKE. If anyone knows of a way to do the union of the two sets, that would be extremely helpful. Thx!

The -W warning categories options have nothing to do with C[XX]FLAGS. These are command line arguments used when invoking automake.
Conversely, the AM_INIT_AUTOMAKE options like -Wall don't affect the compiler flags. It's just the decision to use these switch names that is resulting in the confusion. They have a similar meaning, e.g., -Werror will treat automake warnings as errors, but are totally unrelated.
In short, you have to pass -Wall, etc., in C[XX]FLAGS to influence the compiler. And add -Wall to AM_INIT_AUTOMAKE to enable all warning categories when automake is invoked.

Related

How to pass arbitrary compiler CFLAGS with Scons from the command line without custom code?

Is there a way to write something like:
scons CFLAGS='-fsanitize=address -fsanitize=thread'
which would just work with a minimal script:
env = Environment()
env.Program(target='main.out', source=['main.c'])
without changing that script?
I know how to do it by modifying the script with AddOption + env.Append(CCFLAGS but I'm wondering it it is possible without changing the code to explicitly support it.
I ended up going with:
env = Environment()
env.Append(CCFLAGS='-Werror')
env.Append(CCFLAGS=ARGUMENTS.get('CCFLAGS', ''))
env.Program(target='main.out', source=['main.c'])
which can be used as:
scons CCFLAGS='-Wall -pedantic'
and will compile as:
gcc -o main.o -c -Werror -Wall -pedantic main.c
You likely want to keep the env.Append(CCFLAGS=ARGUMENTS.get('CCFLAGS', '')) line as the very last change made to CCFLAGS, since this will allow overriding the defaults on the command line: GCC tends to just use the last value seen as the actual one.
TODO: how to make it work with Variables? This would be nicer since we can get more error checking and the help message generation:
variables = Variables(None, ARGUMENTS)
variables.Add('CCFLAGS', 'my help', '')
env = Environment(variables)
env.Append(CCFLAGS='$CCFLAGS')
env.Append(CCFLAGS=['-Werror'])
env.Program(
source=['main.c'],
target='main.out',
)
Help(variables.GenerateHelpText(env))
but this fails due to bad quoting:
gcc -o main.o -c "-Wall -pedantic" -Werror main.c
This is not possible by design (without explicitly changing the build scripts). From the answer to #1 of the most-frequently-asked questions in our FAQ:
SCons does not automatically propagate the external environment used
to execute 'scons' to the commands used to build target files. This is
so that builds will be guaranteed repeatable regardless of the
environment variables set at the time scons is invoked. This also
means that if the compiler or other commands that you want to use to
build your target files are not in standard system locations, SCons
will not find them unless you explicitly set the PATH to include those
locations.

scons: changing compilation flags for a single source file

I have a fairly complex scons system with several subdirectories, with many libraries and executables.
Currently, every SConscript gets its own cloned environment, so I can easily change CFLAGS (or any other wariable) on a per-SConscript basis, but I'd like to change it per-target, and even per-object-file within a target.
I created a simple example SConscript and SConstruct to explain the problem, as follows.
SConstruct:
env = Environment()
env['CFLAGS'] = '-O2'
env.SConscript('SConscript', 'env')
SConscript:
Import('env')
env=env.Clone()
env.Program('foo', ['foo.c', 'bar.c'])
If I run scons, both foo.c and bar.c compile with -O2 flags. I could easily change flags SConscript-wide by just adding env['CFLAGS'] = '...' within the SConscript, but let's say that I want to compile foo.c with -O2, but bar.c with full debugging, -O0 -g. How do I do that (in the simplest possible way)?
The example uses gcc, but I'd like something that can be used with any compiler.
This happens frequently with performance-sensitive projects where compiling everything without optimization would result in unacceptable performance, but there is a need to debug one single file (or a subset of them).
The simplest one-liner answer is probably just to replace your Program line with this:
env.Program('foo', ['foo.c', env.Object('bar.c', CFLAGS='-g')])
because Program can take Object nodes as well as source files, and you can override any construction variable(s) in any builder (here, we override CFLAGS in the Object builder call). If you want to break out the Object into its own line for clarity:
debug_objs = env.Object('bar.c', CFLAGS='-g')
env.Program('foo', ['foo.c', debug_objs])
and of course taking that to the limit you get a system like Avatar33 showed above.
I suppose this is a bit harder in scons than it would be in make where you could just clean the required target and rebuilt with debug flags. Which would then just rebuild a specific object.
The solution to your particular project depends on it's size and how much effort the developer is prepared to put in.
So here's a rough solution where you specify source files on the command line that you want to be compiled with debug and no optimization, the rest will be compiled with -O2.
In your SConsctruct one additional line to get source files that we want to compile with debug from a command line option:
env = Environment()
env['CFLAGS'] = '-O2'
AddOption('--debug-targets', dest='debug-targets', type='string')
env.SConscript('SConscript', 'env')
And now in the SConscript file:
Import('env')
env=env.Clone()
debug_env = env.Clone()
debug_env['CFLAGS'] = '-g -O0'
normal_src = ['foo.c', 'bar.c']
debug_src = []
#Add src specified via the command line to the debug build
if GetOption('debug-targets'):
for x in GetOption('debug-targets').split(','):
if x in normal_src:
normal_src.remove(x)
debug_src.append(x)
normal_obj = env.Object(normal_src)
debug_obj = debug_env.Object(debug_src)
all_obj = normal_obj + debug_obj
env.Program('foo', all_obj)
Running our scons with out our debug-targets flag:
scons -Q
gcc -o bar.o -c -O2 bar.c
gcc -o foo.o -c -O2 foo.c
gcc -o foo foo.o bar.o
But now we want to compile bar.c with debug info:
scons -Q --debug-targets=bar.c
gcc -o bar.o -c -g -O0 bar.c
gcc -o foo foo.o bar.o
So that adds a bit of complexity to your build system, but if you don't need to specify debug targets from the command line like that, then the developer can obviously just cut and past sources from the normal_src list to debug_src.
There's probably many ways to improve and fine tune this for your specific environment

autoconf & automake versus -O2 versus -O3

My configure.ac contains
AC_PROG_CXX
and my Makefile.am contains
AM_CXXFLAGS= -Werror -O3
and the resulting 'configure' script keeps on adding -O2 to the mix in addition to O3.
I have this suspicion that I'm supposed to do something in configure.ac to declare my preference for O3, but I can't find it in the doc. How do I tell it that I want to control the optimization level?
No, you are not supposed to add anything to configure.ac to indicate a preference for -O3. That sort of thing belongs in a user's CONFIG_SITE, not in configure.ac
However, if you insist on breaking the convention, you can do something like:
: ${CXXFLAGS=-Werror -O3}
Note that this line must appear before AC_PROG_CXX (or any macro that AC_REQUIRES it, such as LT_INIT, as that will cause AC_PROG_CXX to be emitted into the configure script before this line.)
The prior answer is correct in that it should be the installer's choice what flags are used. If you're still wondering where the -g -O2 comes from (likely), it is described at http://www.gnu.org/s/hello/manual/autoconf/C_002b_002b-Compiler.html.
That page does suggest "If your package does not like this default, then it is acceptable to insert the line ‘: ${CXXFLAGS=""}’ after AC_INIT and before AC_PROG_CXX to select an empty default instead."

vim csupport compiler options

How can I change compiler options (like adding -std=c99 or some library) when i use "\rc" command from csupport extension without GUI?
If you switch to \rm to run make instead, you could place your -std=c99 into your Makefile.
If you want to change the CFLAGS inside the plugin, you can set the g:C_CFlags variable; see the :help csupport-custom section for details.

Setting per-file flags with automake

Is there a way set flags on a per-file basis with automake?
In particular, if I have a c++ project and want to compile with -WAll all the files except one for which I want to disable a particular warning, what could I do?
I tried something like:
CXXFLAGS = -WAll ...
bin_PROGRAMS = test
test_SOURCES = main.cpp utility.cpp
utility_o_CXXFLAGS = $(CXXFLAGS) -Wno-unused-value
but it didn't work.
EDITED: removed reference to automake manual, which was actually misleading (thanks to Douglas Leeder).
You can't do this with automake... but can do with make =) Add following line to your Makefile.am:
utility.$(OBJEXT) : CXXFLAGS += -Wno-unused-value
See GNU Make documentation : Target-specific Variable Values for details.
Automake only supports per-target flags, while you want per-object flags. One way around is to create a small library that contains your object:
CXXFLAGS = -Wall ...
bin_PROGRAMS = test
test_SOURCES = main.cpp
test_LDADD = libutility.a
noinst_LIBRARIES = libutility.a
libutility_a_SOURCES = utility.cpp
libutility_a_CXXFLAGS = $(CXXFLAGS) -Wno-unused-value
You've got confused - that section is referring to options to automake itself.
It's a way of setting the automake command-line options:
-W CATEGORY
--warnings=category
Output warnings falling in category. category can be one of:
gnu
warnings related to the GNU Coding Standards (see Top).
obsolete
obsolete features or constructions
override
user redefinitions of Automake rules or variables
portability
portability issues (e.g., use of make features that are known to be not portable)
syntax
weird syntax, unused variables, typos
unsupported
unsupported or incomplete features
all
all the warnings
none
turn off all the warnings
error
treat warnings as errors
A category can be turned off by prefixing its name with ‘no-’.
For instance, -Wno-syntax will hide the
warnings about unused variables.
The categories output by default are ‘syntax’ and ‘unsupported’.
Additionally, ‘gnu’ and ‘portability’
are enabled in --gnu and --gnits
strictness.
The environment variable WARNINGS can contain a comma separated list of
categories to enable. It will be taken
into account before the command-line
switches, this way -Wnone will also
ignore any warning category enabled by
WARNINGS. This variable is also used
by other tools like autoconf; unknown
categories are ignored for this
reason.
The per-file listed in section 17 refers to per-Makefile not source file.
I'm not aware of any per-source file flag setting, but you can set the option for each result binary with:
binaryname_CXXFLAGS

Resources