[cmake-developers] while(1) containing non-fatal errors is an infinite loop

[Brad King]

On 12/05/2013 03:39 PM, Alan W. Irwin wrote:
> But if you replace
> 
> message(FATAL_ERROR "Should stop loop?") ==>
> add_subdirectory(non_existent_directory)

Okay, so the code in question is:

 while(1)
   add_subdirectory(non_existent_directory)
   message(STATUS "Did I make it by FATAL_ERROR?")
 endwhile(1)

> in the above CMake logic you get an infinite loop despite the FATAL
> error from the add_subdirectory command.

A missing subdirectory is not a FATAL error.  Your example is similar to

 while(1)
   message(SEND_ERROR "This is not a fatal error")
   message(STATUS "I made it past SEND_ERROR as docs state")
 endwhile()

which is clearly an infinite loop.  Any number of non-fatal errors
could occur inside a loop and not affect the loop termination.

-Brad