[cmake-developers] [CMake 0012301]: CMAKE_BUILD_TYPE not set on MinGW

[Alan W. Irwin]

On 2011-06-22 17:36-0400 Mantis Bug Tracker wrote:

>
> The following issue has been SUBMITTED.
> ======================================================================
> http://public.kitware.com/Bug/view.php?id=12301
> ======================================================================
> Reported By:                Stephen Kelly
> Assigned To:
> ======================================================================
> Project:                    CMake
> Issue ID:                   12301
> Category:                   CMake
> Reproducibility:            always
> Severity:                   minor
> Priority:                   normal
> Status:                     new
> ======================================================================
> Date Submitted:             2011-06-22 17:36 EDT
> Last Modified:              2011-06-22 17:36 EDT
> ======================================================================
> Summary:                    CMAKE_BUILD_TYPE not set on MinGW
> Description:
>
> CMAKE_BUILD_TYPE is not set when using MinGW, which causes problems with loading
> Qt plugins unless the user manually sets the CMAKE_BUILD_TYPE.
>
> CMAKE_BUILD_TYPE should be preset to debug or release, as it is on most other
> platforms.
>
> Context here:
>
> http://thread.gmane.org/gmane.comp.programming.tools.cmake.user/36994/focus=37032

I have an interest is this bug report and the above thread because of
my MinGW/wine tests and experiments with the Qt4 components of PLplot.
Also, we currently have a user who is having a devil of a time getting
the Qt4 components of PLplot to work reliably on Windows.

I have read that thread, but would some MinGW/Windows expert here
(such as, ahem, Clint) explain what the real issue is?

On Linux, CMAKE_BUILD_TYPE is also not set, but the Qt4 aspects of our
PLplot build work fine there.  In other words, the "Unix Makefiles"
generator and associated CMake Linux gcc compiler support know exactly
what to do if the CMAKE_BUILD_TYPE is not set.  (I assume from the
documentation that means that the release version of Qt4 is chosen
rather than the debug version, but I haven't verified that.) So is the
issue really that either/both of "MinGW Makefiles" or "MSYS Makefiles"
combined with the CMake Windows MinGW compiler support don't know how
to correctly handle the case where CMAKE_BUILD_TYPE is not set?

Currently, I must say I have sometimes had success with the Qt4
components of PLplot on wine and sometimes not, and I haven't yet
pinned down the reason.  And we have a PLplot user with very similar
Qt4/PLplot reliability issues using MinGW on the Microsoft version of
Windows.  Because of the information in the above bug report I will
try manually setting CMAKE_BUILD_TYPE (I haven't done that before) the
next time I build and test PLplot on wine, and I have suggested our
user do the same on Microsoft Windows, in the hope it will make the
Qt4 components of PLplot more reliable on those platforms.

Clint, I had planned to restart MinGW/MSYS/Wine and MinGW/Wine testing
of PLplot builds in the next several weeks, but I could start those
tests earlier if it would clarify some of the issues you discovered for the
case when CMAKE_BUILD_TYPE was not set manually.

Alan
__________________________
Alan W. Irwin

Astronomical research affiliation with Department of Physics and Astronomy,
University of Victoria (astrowww.phys.uvic.ca).

Programming affiliations with the FreeEOS equation-of-state implementation
for stellar interiors (freeeos.sf.net); PLplot scientific plotting software
package (plplot.org); the libLASi project (unifont.org/lasi); the Loads of
Linux Links project (loll.sf.net); and the Linux Brochure Project
(lbproject.sf.net).
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Linux-powered Science
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