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IDProjectCategoryView StatusDate SubmittedLast Update
0013538CMakeCMakepublic2012-09-14 08:462015-01-05 08:39
ReporterMiguel FIGUEIREDO 
Assigned To 
PrioritynormalSeverityfeatureReproducibilityalways
StatusclosedResolutionduplicate 
Platformx86_64OSGNU/LinuxOS VersionUbuntu 12.04
Product VersionCMake 2.8.9 
Target VersionFixed in Version 
Summary0013538: Ninja: Generated 'build.ninja' seems to be incomplete and fails to build ExternalProjects.
DescriptionI'm building proprietary components and 3rd parties components using "ExternalProject" : sqlite3, ezxml and Cunit.

My build succeed when I use a "Unix/Makefiles" generator and fails with "Ninja" generator with the following error message :
"ninja: error: 'vendor/ezxml/staging/lib/libezxml.a', needed by 'vodaccess_depends.c', missing and no known rule to make it".

When I run 'ninja -d explain' into cmake directory, I got :
"[...]
ninja explain: vendor/ezxml/staging/lib/libezxml.a has no in-edge and is missing
ninja explain: vendor/cunit/staging/lib/libcunit.a has no in-edge and is missing
ninja explain: vendor/sqlite3/staging/lib/libsqlite3.a has no in-edge and is missing
[...]"
corresponding to my ExternalProjects.
Steps To ReproduceSorry, I do not reproduce the problem outside my environment yet.

Note that I was able to build my ExternalProjects (in standalone) outside my build environment.
Additional InformationI hacked the generated 'build.ninja' file with the following lines :

"build vendor/ezxml/staging/lib/libezxml.a : phony vendor/ezxml/ezxml
build vendor/cunit/staging/lib/libcunit.a : phony vendor/cunit/cunit
build vendor/sqlite3/staging/lib/libsqlite3.a : phony vendor/sqlite3/sqlite3", and the build proceeds.
TagsNo tags attached.
Attached Fileszip file icon ninja.info.zip [^] (19,572 bytes) 2012-09-14 08:46

 Relationships
related to 0014963closedBrad King Add explicit specification of custom command side effect outputs 
related to 0013574closed Ninja: no transitive dependency for imported libraries 

  Notes
(0031032)
Peter Kuemmel (developer)
2012-09-15 19:27
edited on: 2012-10-05 15:34

 I assume the other generators only hide a bug in your setup.
To see this, call make with a target which needs the external project.
Then I also get an error with the nmake generator.

I assume you have somewhere:
ExternalProject_Add(ezxml ....)
set(EZXML_LIB vendor/ezxml/staging/lib/libezxml.a)

and later you use
target_link_library(x ${EZXML_LIB})
add_dependencies(x ezxml)


But cmake can't know that ezxml and ${EZXML_LIB} are related.

So try

ExternalProject_Add(ezxmlBuild ....)
add_library(ezxml STATIC IMPORTED GLOBAL)
add_dependencies(ezxml ezxmlBuild)
set_target_properties(ezxml PROPERTIES IMPORTED_LOCATION vendor/ezxml/staging/lib/libezxml.a)

and later you only need
target_link_library(x ezxml)


This works with make but not with ninja.
(0031162)
Peter Kuemmel (developer)
2012-10-03 08:58

 Maybe ExternalProject_Add() should do above automatically:

   #--Install step---------------
    [INSTALL_DIR dir] # Installation prefix
    [INSTALL_COMMAND cmd...] # Command to drive install after build
    [INSTALL_LIBRARIES <var> libraries]# List of libraries which depend on this target and could be used via <var> in other projects. Libraries will have the INSTALL_DIR prefix.
(0031645)
David Cole (manager)
2012-11-21 14:44

 Even if ExternalProject did this sort of library linkage automatically, the dependencies through to the source files would not be available to the outer project's make (or ninja) dependency analysis system.

And if we did do this automatically, then that's the next thing that people would ask for...

And if we did that all the way, then there is no longer anything External about it, and it's then conceptually the same as what you get with add_subdirectory and a direct inclusion of the sub-projects CMakeLists.txt files...

So I don't think we should do any of this automatic stuff.

I don't think this scenario described in this bug report should even work with the Makefiles generators... and if it does, I think it probably works by accident somehow.

I'm re-setting the status of this bug back to new and un-assigning it from myself... If anybody else wants to tackle this, I'm happy to advise and review proposed changes, but I strongly lean toward leaving well enough alone in this case.

ExternalProject should only be used to build things that are really external. Referring to them properly after that is up to each individual user. Usually the clients/importers of things built this way can just use find_package after the external project is built to get things imported properly.

See the Open Chemistry super build for a good example of how this works, using CMAKE_PREFIX_PATH so that find_package works automatically for the most part:

  http://source.openchemistry.org/gitweb?p=openchemistry.git;a=summary [^]
(0032553)
Peter Kuemmel (developer)
2013-03-09 06:24

 Bug is not new any more, there was some activity.
(0036158)
Brad King (manager)
2014-06-11 08:38

 See discussion in 0014963.
(0036296)
Brad King (manager)
2014-07-01 09:33

 I'm resolving this as a duplicate of issue 0014963 which describes the larger problem. Either 0014963 needs to be resolved on the CMake side, or the Ninja issue linked in 0014747:0035830 needs to be resolved on the Ninja side. That will resolve this issue.
(0037577)
Robert Maynard (manager)
2015-01-05 08:39

 Closing resolved issues that have not been updated in more than 4 months

 Issue History
Date Modified Username Field Change
2012-09-14 08:46 Miguel FIGUEIREDO New Issue
2012-09-14 08:46 Miguel FIGUEIREDO File Added: ninja.info.zip
2012-09-15 19:27 Peter Kuemmel Note Added: 0031032
2012-10-03 08:49 Peter Kuemmel Assigned To => David Cole
2012-10-03 08:49 Peter Kuemmel Status new => assigned
2012-10-03 08:58 Peter Kuemmel Note Added: 0031162
2012-10-05 15:34 Peter Kuemmel Note Edited: 0031032
2012-10-05 15:41 Peter Kuemmel Relationship added related to 0013574
2012-11-21 14:44 David Cole Note Added: 0031645
2012-11-21 14:45 David Cole Assigned To David Cole =>
2012-11-21 14:45 David Cole Status assigned => new
2013-02-09 07:02 Peter Kuemmel Summary [CMAKE+NINJA] Generated 'build.ninja' seems to be incomplete and fails to build ExternalProjects. => Ninja: Generated 'build.ninja' seems to be incomplete and fails to build ExternalProjects.
2013-03-09 06:24 Peter Kuemmel Note Added: 0032553
2013-03-09 06:24 Peter Kuemmel Assigned To => Peter Kuemmel
2013-03-09 06:24 Peter Kuemmel Status new => backlog
2014-06-11 08:36 Brad King Relationship added related to 0014963
2014-06-11 08:38 Brad King Note Added: 0036158
2014-07-01 09:33 Brad King Note Added: 0036296
2014-07-01 09:33 Brad King Assigned To Peter Kuemmel =>
2014-07-01 09:33 Brad King Status backlog => resolved
2014-07-01 09:33 Brad King Resolution open => duplicate
2015-01-05 08:39 Robert Maynard Note Added: 0037577
2015-01-05 08:39 Robert Maynard Status resolved => closed

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