4 // Fraunhofer Institute for Open Communication Systems (FOKUS)
5 // Competence Center NETwork research (NET), St. Augustin, GERMANY
6 // Stefan Bund <g0dil@berlios.de>
8 // This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify
9 // it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by
10 // the Free Software Foundation; either version 2 of the License, or
11 // (at your option) any later version.
13 // This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
14 // but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
15 // MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the
16 // GNU General Public License for more details.
18 // You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
19 // along with this program; if not, write to the
20 // Free Software Foundation, Inc.,
21 // 59 Temple Place - Suite 330, Boston, MA 02111-1307, USA.
25 /** \mainpage The Senf Build Environment
27 The Senf Build Environment is based on the <a href="http://www.scons.org">SCons</a> software
28 construction tool. SCons is a <a href="http://www.python.org">python</a> based replacement for
29 \c make. SENFScons consists of several SCons builders as well as some global configuration and
30 build utilities. SENFScons tightly integrates the <a
31 href="http://www.boost.org/libs/test/doc/index.html">Boost.Test</a> unit testing framework. It
32 also incorporates a very flexible infrastructure to build software documentation using <a
33 href="http://www.stack.nl/~dimitri/doxygen/">Doxygen</a>. This infrastructure uses quite a bit
34 of pre- and postprocessing (which is integrated with the provided Doxygen builder) to fix some
35 doxygen problems and generate a (IMHO) more readable layout.
37 \section layout The Project Layout
39 A Project using the SENFSCons infrastructure will always use a consistent directory layout. The
40 top-level directory will contain one subdirectory for every module. The main target will often
41 be considered to be just another module using the facilities provided by library modules.
43 The top-level project directory must contain the SENFSCons module in 'senfscons'.
45 The top-level \c SConstruct file will set up the global project configuration (which libraries
46 are used etc) and will then automatically load all module \c SConscript files.
48 Documentation is generated per module. This simplifies reusing modules in other projects. The
49 framework however semi-automatically creates the necessary cross-reference information to
50 cross-link the different module documentations. The unit-tests as well are run on a per-module
53 \section Standard Build Configuration
55 When the \c SConsctruct and \c SConscript files are build using the default SENFSCons helpers,
56 by default all libraries and binaries are built. Some additional targets are
58 <dl><dt><tt>scons all_tests</tt></dt><dd>Build all unit tests</dd>
60 <dt><tt>scons all_docs</tt></dt><dd>Build documentation of all modules</dd>
62 <dt><tt>scons all</tt></dt><dd>Build all targets including binaries, libraries, documentation,
63 tests and possible further targets </dd>
65 <dt><tt>scons -u doc</tt></dt><dd>Run from within a module directory will build the
66 documentation of that module</dd>
68 <dt><tt>scons -u test</tt></dt><dd>Run from within a module directory will build and run the
69 unit test of that module</dd></dl>
71 To clean any of the targets use the SCons \c -c parameter.
73 The build environment can be configured \e locally using \ref sconfig in the project root
83 /** \page sconstruct The Top-Level 'SConstruct' File
85 The top-level \c SConstruct file sets up the build, configures used libraries and parameters and
86 invokes the module \c SConscript files. To simplify the configuration, the SENFScons python
87 package is provided. This package has helper utilities to simplify standard tasks.
89 In \c senfscons/SConstruct.template you may find an example SConstruct file. Copy this to the
90 project root (under the name \c SConstruct) to start a new project. You can then modify and
91 configure it to your wishes.
93 The general structure of the \c SConstruct file is
94 \li make the \c senfscons directory accessible
95 \li tell the SENFScons infrastructure, which frameworks you intend to use and let SENFScons
96 built a construction environment for you
97 \li configure the construction environment
98 \li load module sconscript file
99 \li specify global build targets
101 The first part, <i>making the \c senfscons directory accessible</i> will always stay the
102 same. See the template file for how this is done.
104 <i>Simplifying the use of more complex frameworks</i> is one of the most important things why
105 SENFScons exists. If you only use very simple libraries, the configuration is quite
106 simple. However for more complex frameworks the configuration can get quite complicated. This is
107 simplified using the SENFScons framework statements. They all reside in the \c SENFSCons package
108 and have a prefix of \c Use. See \ref use.
110 After all frameworks are configured, you can use SEFNScons.MakeEnvironment() to create a
111 correctly configured construction environment.
113 To <i>configure the construction environment</i> you can set Variables in the construction
114 environment. See the SCons manpage for a list of supported variables. Some additional variables
115 are available with the new builders introduced with SENFSCons. Those are documented with the
116 builder module documentation.
118 <i>Loading the module \c SConscript files</i> will normally always be performed the same way
119 using \c glob.glob() to automatically include any subdirectory module.
121 You may then <i>specify global build targets</i>. You can use standard SCons targets or use all
122 the target helpers provided with SENFSCons. Two standard helpers should always be included:
123 SENFSCons.StandardTargets() and SENFSCons.GlobalTargets(). You can find more target helpers at
126 The SConstruct file is an ordinary python file. It is loaded by SCons prior to building the
127 software. Just remember, you can use all of python and all of SCons here. SENFScons just
128 provides some additional helpers to make things simpler and more concise.
135 /** \page sconscript The Module 'SConscript' Files
137 Every module (that is subdirectory) is built by that modules \c SConscript file. In \c
138 SConscript.template you can find a template of such a file.
140 Every \c SConscript file starts by importing the construction environment. The \c SConscript
141 file is an ordinary \c SConscript file as used by SCons. You may use any of the SCons facilities
142 to define targets. However, you will mostly use the \ref target.
144 Every \c SConscript file should call \c SENFSCons.StandardTargets() to initialize the standard
145 targets of every module.
151 /** \page sconfig The 'SConfig' File
153 To configure the build environment to the local environment, a \c SConfig file may be created in
154 the projects root directory. The supported parameters are
158 <dd>C++ compiler to use</dd>
159 <dt>\c EXTRA_DEFINES</dt>
160 <dd>preprocessor symbols to be defined locally</dd>
161 <dt>\c EXTRA_LIBS</dt>
162 <dd>additional libraries needed for a local build</dd>
165 Additionally, the \ref use define additional configuration variables which may be set here.
174 // c-file-style: "senf"
175 // indent-tabs-mode: nil
176 // ispell-local-dictionary: "american"