Package manager - interacting with the compiler

[Jacob Carlborg]

On 2011-12-10 22:13, J Arrizza wrote:
> Jacob,
>
> On Sat, Dec 10, 2011 at 12:55 AM, Jacob Carlborg <doob at me.com
> <mailto:doob at me.com>> wrote:
>
>     Currently I see two use cases:
>
>     1. When the package manager installs (and builds) a package
>
>
> This will have to handle cross-compilations and multiple build variants
> per platform. Multiple platforms are needed especially for embedded work
> (simulation vs real binaries) and multiple build variants are needed, at
> least Debug vs Release variants.
>
> Also multiple projects require a set of config files per project. There
> would be a lot of commonality between project config files but that's
> ok. The idea of "inheriting" from a common config  file can cause a lot
> of problems.
>
> In all cases, the config file(s) need to be version controlled per
> project since they are unique to the project generating the build.

The package manager just invokes a build tool, like make, rdmd, dsss, 
shell script and so on.

>     2. When a user (developer) builds a project and want's to use
>     installed packages
>
>
>     If environment variables are used in this case, then the package
>     manager would need a shell script wrapper, the same way as DVM does
>     it, to be able to set environment variables for the parent (the shell).
>
> Please no environment variables for anything. If all config info is in a
> file and that file is version controlled then keeping tight control over
> build configurations is much easier.
>
> For the same reasons, it would be ideal to have a method that dumps all
> versions of all packages used by a particular build variant. This could
> be generated and saved in version control for audit reasons, or, to go
> the extra step, it could be compared against during every build. This
> ensures that all components have not been inadvertently changed, i.e.
> all config changes are done in a controlled way.
>
> I'm not sure if any of that points the way to implement the builds any
> clearer...
>
> John

I'm not sure but I think you missed the point (or I missed your point). 
The projects will have a file indicating which other project they 
depends on. The when the package manager installs a project it will 
compile the project. When it's compiled the package manager needs to 
somehow tell the compiler what imports path to use and libraries to link 
with.

-- 
/Jacob Carlborg