How to generate object files in variant directory in scons - scons

I am using scons with python 2.7.1
my question is , i want to generate the object files in build directory.
but object files are creating in my source directory.
my code is:
env.Library('Liba', Glob(builddir + '/*.c'))
can you tell me how to generate the object file inbuild directory
thanks.

In SCons terminology, what you are asking is called a variant directory, or simply VariantDir. You have a few options for placing the targets in a VariantDir, as explained here.
You could use the VariantDir() function which has the following syntax:
VariantDir(variant_dir, src_dir, [duplicate])
The duplicate argument is a boolean, which indicates if you want the source code copied to the variant dir or not.
Another way to use a VariantDir is if you have a hierarchy of SConstruct and SConscript script files, when calling the subsidiary SConscripts with the SConscript() function, one of the arguments is the variant_dir, as detailed here:
SConscript(dirs=subdirs, [name=script, exports, variant_dir, duplicate])
Notice the SConscript() function also has the duplicate argument.

Related

cmake compiling but not linking a new source file in a library (libonion)

I am a cmake newbie (on Debian/Sid/Linux/x86-64)
I forked libonion on https://github.com/bstarynk/onion to enable customization of malloc with Boehm's garbage collector; see this mail thread.
I added two files there onion/src/low_util.c and onion_src/low_util.h (which is #include-d successfully in several other patched files.
It is compiled but not linked.
set(SOURCES onion.c codecs.c dict.c low_util.c request.c response.c handler.c
log.c sessions.c sessions_mem.c shortcuts.c block.c mime.c url.c ${POLLER_C}
listen_point.c request_parser.c http.c ${HTTPS_C} websocket.c ${RANDOM_C} ${SQLITE3_C})
later:
SET(INCLUDES_ONION block.h codecs.h dict.h handler.h http.h https.h listen_point.h low_util.h log.h mime.h onion.h poller.h request.h response.h server.h sessions.h shortcuts.h types.h types_internal.h url.h websocket.h ${SQLITE3_H})
MESSAGE(STATUS "Found include files ${INCLUDES_ONION}")
but when I build, my file low_util.c got compiled but not linked.
Linking C executable otemplate
CMakeFiles/opack.dir/__/__/src/onion/dict.c.o: In function `onion_dict_new':
dict.c:(.text+0x1bc): undefined reference to `onionlow_calloc'
CMakeFiles/opack.dir/__/__/src/onion/dict.c.o: In function `onion_dict_node_data_free':
dict.c:(.text+0x2ec): undefined reference to `onionlow_free'
CMakeFiles/opack.dir/__/__/src/onion/dict.c.o: In function `onion_dict_node_add':
Notice that libonion is a library (in C, providing HTTP service) and that I just want to add a low_util.c file (wrapping malloc & pthread_create etc... to make Boehm's GC happy: it is calling GC_malloc and GC_pthread_create ....) with its low_util.h header. Surprisingly, they get compiled, but do not seems to be linked. And I am not familiar with cmake and I am not familiar with how D.Moreno (the main author of libonion) has organized his cmake files.
Any clues?
Apply the following patch to make it link. The two executables which are being linked with the symbols generated from the .c file you added are missing and are added in the patch.
http://pastebin.com/mDMRiUQu
Based on what you posted, its hard to tell what could be wrong. The cake source code above says that a variable ${SOURCES} is equivalent to onion.c codecs.c dict.c low_util.c ... ${SQLITE3_C}, and a variable ${INCLUDE_ONION} is equivalent to block.h codecs.h dict.h ... ${SQLITE3_H}. You did not provide any targets or the files included in those targets.
A brief list of things that may help:
where do you define the top level library or executable? If your making a library, you will need the command add_library(). If you are making an executable, you will need the add_executable() command.
Use the command target_link_libraries() to resolve dependencies. Rather than placing all of the source files in a single library, group similar together in a single target (a target is defined by the add_* commands), and use this command to link the targets after compilation.
Use the find_package() to get any libraries which are defined on your system but not in you project. Then, link to that library using the target_link_libraries() command.
In this case, if the onion_dict_* functions are defined within the same library, your not including those files in library. When you use add_library or add_executable, ensure you add those files to the list. If the functions are within your project but not in the same library, use the target_link_libraries() command to link to the library which contains the correct files. If those commands are defined in an external library, then first find the library using find_package(), and then link to the library using target_link_libraries().

How to prevent scons from cleaning parent and sibling directories?

I'm working on implementing a build system using scons for a somewhat large software project. There is a directory structure which separates the code for individual libraries and programs into their own directories. With our existing make system, I can do a "make clean" in a single program directory and it will only clean the files associated with the source in that directory. If I do an "scons -c" though, it recognizes that the program depends on a slew of libraries that are in sibling (or cousin) directories and cleans all of the files for those as well. This is not what I want since I then have to rebuild all of these libraries which can take several minutes.
I have tried playing with the "NoClean()" command, but have not gotten it to work in the way I need. Given the size of the code base and complexity of the directory structure, I can't realistically have a NoClean() line for every file in every library.
Is there any way to tell scons to ignore any dependencies above the current directory when doing a clean (i.e. scons -c) ?
I'd love to have a good answer to this myself.
The only solution that I can offer for now is that you get Noclean working.
So in your library, you should have something like this
lib_objs = SharedObject(source_list)
mylib = SharedLibrary('libname', lib_objs)
So for this we want to protect the library and the sources from being cleaned.
NoClean([mylib, lib_objs])
Notice that I had to split the building of the object files from the library because I want to be able to pass them to NoClean as well.
Try using the target name when cleaning.
scons -c aTargetName
You can use the SCons Alias() function to simplify the target name and to also group several target names into one alias.
With this approach you'll have to add an alias in each appropriate subdir, which isn't necessarily a bad thing :)

Scons: shared library for each source file

I'm having sconscript that has a line like this:
EXT_SHADERS = shader_env.SharedLibrary('scrubs', source_files, LIBPREFIX='')
And the source_files is "abbreviated" from:
src_base_dir = os.path.join(shader_env['ROOT_DIR'], 'contrib', 'extensions', 'scrubs', 'shaders')
source_files = [os.path.join('shaders', x) for x in find_files_recursive(src_base_dir, ['.c', '.cpp'])]
Now I know from the docs this builds one shared library named scrubs but what need is for each .cpp file in source folder one shared library built only from it's corresponding source file (.cpp) and option to add more sources later without changing the build script, is anything like this possible cause.I'm not seeing anything in the docs or elsewhere,
Thanks in advance
If you want one shared library per source file and that the library name has the same base-name as the source file (fileName1.cc => libfileName1.so, fileName2.cc => libfileName2.so) then you'll have to write some more python code, preferably using the os.path.splitext() function.
Here is an example.
Also, from your answer, I see the possibility that the source files are not in the same directory structure as the root SConsctruct, which is not supported by SCons. Here are two examples (one supported, the other not)
Supported dir structure
topDir/
SConstruct
srcDir/
srcFile1.cc
srcFile2.cc
Not supported dir structure
topDir/
subDir1/
SConstruct
subDir2/
srcFile1.cc
srcFile2.cc

C++ Creating a standalone library in linux and using it in another program

I'm trying to create a shared library for Linux such that:
other programs can use its functions and its objects
the code is not visible to final user
What i did is create a shared library with Eclipse. This library uses pthreads.
I generated .so and .lib. The .lib is in LIBRARY/Lib while the .so is in LIBRARY/Release.
Then i created another project which should use this library and i gave the path of the .lib file and the path of the .h file which only contains the inclusions of all the necessary .h of the library.
All seems working but when i run the program it crashes. When debugging it I receive the following message:
Can't find a source file at "pthread_mutex_lock.c"
Locate the file or edit the source lookup path to include its location.
What's wrong? Can someone help me please?
EDIT: I changed nothing and now I have a different error, some lines before the previous:
Can't find a source file at "random.c"
Locate the file or edit the source lookup path to include its location.
other programs can use its functions and its objects
the code is not visible to final user
These two goals directly contradict each other, and achieving both at the same time is impossible on Linux.
If some program can use your library, then I can write a new program that can do so as well.

The compilation process

Can anyone explain how compilation works?
I can't seem to figure out how compilation works..
To be more specific, here's an example.. I'm trying to write some code in MSVC++ 6 to load a Lua state..
I've already:
set the additional directories for the library and include files to the right directories
used extern "C" (because Lua is C only or so I hear)
include'd the right header files
But i'm still getting some errors in MSVC++6 about unresolved external symbols (for the Lua functions that I used).
As much as I'd like to know how to solve this problem and move on, I think it would be much better for me if I came to understand the underlying processes involved, so could anyone perhaps write a nice explanation for this? What I'm looking to know is the process.. It could look like this:
Step 1:
Input: Source code(s)
Process: Parsing (perhaps add more detail here)
Output: whatever is output here..
Step 2:
Input: Whatever was output from step 1, plus maybe whatever else is needed (libraries? DLLs? .so? .lib? )
Process: whatever is done with the input
Output: whatever is output
and so on..
Thanks..
Maybe this will explain what symbols are, what exactly "linking" is, what "object" code or whatever is..
Thanks.. Sorry for being such a noob..
P.S. This doesn't have to be language specific.. But feel free to express it in the language you're most comfortable in.. :)
EDIT: So anyway, I was able to get the errors resolved, it turns out that I have to manually add the .lib file to the project; simply specifying the library directory (where the .lib resides) in the IDE settings or project settings does not work..
However, the answers below have somewhat helped me understand the process better. Many thanks!.. If anyone still wants to write up a thorough guide, please do.. :)
EDIT: Just for additional reference, I found two articles by one author (Mike Diehl) to explain this quite well.. :)
Examining the Compilation Process: Part 1
Examining the Compilation Process: Part 2
From source to executable is generally a two stage process for C and associated languages, although the IDE probably presents this as a single process.
1/ You code up your source and run it through the compiler. The compiler at this stage needs your source and the header files of the other stuff that you're going to link with (see below).
Compilation consists of turning your source files into object files. Object files have your compiled code and enough information to know what other stuff they need, but not where to find that other stuff (e.g., the LUA libraries).
2/ Linking, the next stage, is combining all your object files with libraries to create an executable. I won't cover dynamic linking here since that will complicate the explanation with little benefit.
Not only do you need to specify the directories where the linker can find the other code, you need to specify the actual library containing that code. The fact that you're getting unresolved externals indicates that you haven't done this.
As an example, consider the following simplified C code (xx.c) and command.
#include <bob.h>
int x = bob_fn(7);
cc -c -o xx.obj xx.c
This compiles the xx.c file to xx.obj. The bob.h contains the prototype for bob_fn() so that compilation will succeed. The -c instructs the compiler to generate an object file rather than an executable and the -o xx.obj sets the output file name.
But the actual code for bob_fn() is not in the header file but in /bob/libs/libbob.so, so to link, you need something like:
cc -o xx.exe xx.obj -L/bob/libs;/usr/lib -lbob
This creates xx.exe from xx.obj, using libraries (searched for in the given paths) of the form libbob.so (the lib and .so are added by the linker usually). In this example, -L sets the search path for libraries. The -l specifies a library to find for inclusion in the executable if necessary. The linker usually takes the "bob" and finds the first relevant library file in the search path specified by -L.
A library file is really a collection of object files (sort of how a zip file contains multiple other files, but not necessarily compressed) - when the first relevant occurrence of an undefined external is found, the object file is copied from the library and added to the executable just like your xx.obj file. This generally continues until there are no more unresolved externals. The 'relevant' library is a modification of the "bob" text, it may look for libbob.a, libbob.dll, libbob.so, bob.a, bob.dll, bob.so and so on. The relevance is decided by the linker itself and should be documented.
How it works depends on the linker but this is basically it.
1/ All of your object files contain a list of unresolved externals that they need to have resolved. The linker puts together all these objects and fixes up the links between them (resolves as many externals as possible).
2/ Then, for every external still unresolved, the linker combs the library files looking for an object file that can satisfy the link. If it finds it, it pulls it in - this may result in further unresolved externals as the object pulled in may have its own list of externals that need to be satisfied.
3/ Repeat step 2 until there are no more unresolved externals or no possibility of resolving them from the library list (this is where your development was at, since you hadn't included the LUA library file).
The complication I mentioned earlier is dynamic linking. That's where you link with a stub of a routine (sort of a marker) rather than the actual routine, which is later resolved at load time (when you run the executable). Things such as the Windows common controls are in these DLLs so that they can change without having to relink the objects into a new executable.
Step 1 - Compiler:
Input: Source code file[s]
Process: Parsing source code and translating into machine code
Output: Object file[s], which consist[s] of:
The names of symbols which are defined in this object, and which this object file "exports"
The machine code associated with each symbol that's defined in this object file
The names of symbols which are not defined in this object file, but on which the software in this object file depends and to which it must subsequently be linked, i.e. names which this object file "imports"
Step 2 - Linking:
Input:
Object file[s] from step 1
Libraries of other objects (e.g. from the O/S and other software)
Process:
For each object that you want to link
Get the list of symbols which this object imports
Find these symbols in other libraries
Link the corresponding libraries to your object files
Output: a single, executable file, which includes the machine code from all all your objects, plus the objects from libraries which were imported (linked) to your objects.
The two main steps are compilation and linking.
Compilation takes single compilation units (those are simply source files, with all the headers they include), and create object files. Now, in those object files, there are a lot of functions (and other stuff, like static data) defined at specific locations (addresses). In the next step, linking, a bit of extra information about these functions is also needed: their names. So these are also stored. A single object file can reference functions (because it wants to call them when to code is run) that are actually in other object files, but since we are dealing with a single object file here, only symbolic references (their 'names') to those other functions are stored in the object file.
Next comes linking (let's restrict ourselves to static linking here). Linking is where the object files that were created in the first step (either directly, or after they have been thrown together into a .lib file) are taken together and an executable is created.
In the linking step, all those symbolic references from one object file or lib to another are resolved (if they can be), by looking up the names in the correct object, finding the address of the function, and putting the addresses in the right place.
Now, to explain something about the 'extern "C"' thing you need:
C does not have function overloading. A function is always recognizable by its name. Therefore, when you compile code as C code, only the real name of the function is stored in the object file.
C++, however, has something called 'function / method overloading'. This means that the name of a function is no longer enough to identify it. C++ compilers therefore create 'names' for functions that include the prototypes of the function (since the name plus the prototype will uniquely identify a function). This is known as 'name mangling'.
The 'extern "C"' specification is needed when you want to use a library that has been compiled as 'C' code (for example, the pre-compiled Lua binaries) from a C++ project.
For your exact problem: if it still does not work, these hints might help:
* have the Lua binaries been compiled with the same version of VC++?
* can you simply compile Lua yourself, either within your VC solution, or as a separate project as C++ code?
* are you sure you have all the 'extern "C"' things correct?
You have to go into project setting and add a directory where you have that LUA library *.lib files somewhere on the "linker" tab. Setting called "including libraries" or something, sorry I can't look it up.
The reason you get "unresolved external symbols" is because compilation in C++ works in two stages. First, the code gets compiled, each .cpp file in it's own .obj file, then "linker" starts and join all that .obj files into .exe file. .lib file is just a bunch of .obj files merged together to make distribution of libraries just a little bit simplier.
So by adding all the "#include" and extern declaration you told the compiler that somewhere it would be possible to find code with those signatures but linker can't find that code because it doesn't know where those .lib files with actual code is placed.
Make sure you have read REDME of the library, usually they have rather detailed explanation of what you had to do to include it in your code.
You might also want to check this out: COMPILER, ASSEMBLER, LINKER AND LOADER: A BRIEF STORY.

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