[cmake-developers] Integration of manpage installation

[Eric Noulard]

2011/6/7 Michael Wild <themiwi at gmail.com>:
> On 06/07/2011 07:40 PM, Werner Mahr wrote:
>> Michael Wild wrote:
[...]

>> I don't think that writing
>> stuff like this in many different projects is a good idea, that's why I
>> proposed to include it native in cmake.
>>
>> ADD_EXECUTABLE(<app>, <sources>)
>> SET_TARGET_PROPERTIES (<app> PROPERTIES MAN_SOURCES "docs/man/")
>>
>> is much easier to write. Expected behaviour is to install above
>> mentioned sheme docs/man/<app>* to the right places.
>>
>> From my point as a dev participating in more than one prjoect it would
>> be a pita to try to understand how they implemented their manpage-
>> installation, plus it would slim down many projects lot.
>>
>
> IMHO, sounds an awful lot like DWIM to me, but others might disagree. I
> don't think that CMake could satisfy everybody by using such a scheme.
> Just my 2c...

Agreed.

When the tool you use is too smart you end-up scratching your head forever when
the smart behavior breaks.  Be sure that the smart feature you handle WILL be
broken by some unexpected usage and one will have to handle the bug reports
it generates.

I think, CMake should have solid not-too-basic cross-platform features set
then if you want something smart, then write a CMake module which
may eventually go upstream.
In the end if the smart behavior breaks then you know where to look at.

Moreover MAN pages are a Unix things and CMake has to work on Windows too.
I would rather avoid platform-specific things in CMake builtin,
currently there is not so much such things (besides WIN32 and MAC_OSBUNDLE)
and I find it should stay that way if possible.

My 2.5 c :-]

-- 
Erk
Membre de l'April - « promouvoir et défendre le logiciel libre » -
http://www.april.org