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A feature is a normalized (toolset-independent)
aspect of a build configuration, such as whether inlining is
enabled. Feature names may not contain the '>'
character.
Each feature in a build configuration has one or more
associated values. Feature values for non-free features
may not contain the '<', ':', or
'=' characters. Feature values for free features may not
contain the '<' character.
A property is a (feature,value) pair, expressed as <feature>value.
A subfeature is a feature that only exists in the presence of its parent feature, and whose identity can be derived (in the context of its parent) from its value. A subfeature's parent can never be another subfeature. Thus, features and their subfeatures form a two-level hierarchy.
A value-string for a feature F is a string of
the form
value-subvalue1-subvalue2...-subvalueN, where
value is a legal value for F and
subvalue1...subvalueN are legal values of some
of F's subfeatures. For example, the properties
<toolset>gcc <toolset-version>3.0.1 can be
expressed more concisely using a value-string, as
<toolset>gcc-3.0.1.
A property set is a set of properties (i.e. a
collection without duplicates), for instance:
<toolset>gcc <runtime-link>static.
A property path is a property set whose elements have
been joined into a single string separated by slashes. A property
path representation of the previous example would be
<toolset>gcc/<runtime-link>static.
A build specification is a property set that fully describes the set of features used to build a target.
For free
features, all values are valid. For all other features,
the valid values are explicitly specified, and the build
system will report an error for the use of an invalid
feature-value. Subproperty validity may be restricted so
that certain values are valid only in the presence of
certain other subproperties. For example, it is possible
to specify that the <gcc-target>mingw
property is only valid in the presence of
<gcc-version>2.95.2.
Each feature has a collection of zero or more of the following attributes. Feature attributes are low-level descriptions of how the build system should interpret a feature's values when they appear in a build request. We also refer to the attributes of properties, so that an incidental property, for example, is one whose feature has the incidental attribute.
incidental
Incidental features are assumed not to affect build products at all. As a consequence, the build system may use the same file for targets whose build specification differs only in incidental features. A feature that controls a compiler's warning level is one example of a likely incidental feature.
Non-incidental features are assumed to affect build products, so the files for targets whose build specification differs in non-incidental features are placed in different directories as described in the section called “Target Paths”.
Features of this kind are
propagated to dependencies. That is, if a main target is built using a
propagated
property, the build systems attempts to use the same property
when building any of its dependencies as part of that main
target. For instance, when an optimized executable is
requested, one usually wants it to be linked with optimized
libraries. Thus, the <optimization> feature is
propagated.
Most features have a finite set of allowed values, and can only take on a single value from that set in a given build specification. Free features, on the other hand, can have several values at a time and each value can be an arbitrary string. For example, it is possible to have several preprocessor symbols defined simultaneously:
<define>NDEBUG=1 <define>HAS_CONFIG_H=1
optional
An optional feature is a feature that is not required to appear in a build specification. Every non-optional non-free feature has a default value that is used when a value for the feature is not otherwise specified, either in a target's requirements or in the user's build request. [A feature's default value is given by the first value listed in the feature's declaration. -- move this elsewhere - dwa]
symmetric
Normally a feature only generates a subvariant directory when its value differs from its default value, leading to an asymmetric subvariant directory structure for certain values of the feature. A symmetric feature always generates a corresponding subvariant directory.
path
The value of a path feature specifies a path. The path is treated as relative to the directory of Jamfile where path feature is used and is translated appropriately by the build system when the build is invoked from a different directory
implicit
Values of implicit features alone identify the feature. For example, a user is not required to write "<toolset>gcc", but can simply write "gcc". Implicit feature names also don't appear in variant paths, although the values do. Thus: bin/gcc/... as opposed to bin/toolset-gcc/.... There should typically be only a few such features, to avoid possible name clashes.
composite
Composite features actually correspond to groups of properties. For example, a build variant is a composite feature. When generating targets from a set of build properties, composite features are recursively expanded and added to the build property set, so rules can find them if necessary. Non-composite non-free features override components of composite features in a build property set.
dependency
The value of a dependency feature is a target reference. When used for building of a main target, the value of dependency feature is treated as additional dependency.
For example, dependency features allow to state that library A depends on library B. As the result, whenever an application will link to A, it will also link to B. Specifying B as dependency of A is different from adding B to the sources of A.
Features that are neither free nor incidental are called base features.
When a target with certain properties is requested, and that target requires some set of properties, it is needed to find the set of properties to use for building. This process is called property refinement and is performed by these rules
Sometime it's desirable to apply certain requirements only for a specific combination of other properties. For example, one of compilers that you use issues a pointless warning that you want to suppress by passing a command line option to it. You would not want to pass that option to other compilers. Conditional properties allow you to do just that. Their syntax is:
property ( "," property ) * ":" property
For example, the problem above would be solved by:
exe hello : hello.cpp : <toolset>yfc:<cxxflags>-disable-pointless-warning ;
The syntax also allows several properties in the condition, for example:
exe hello : hello.cpp : <os>NT,<toolset>gcc:<link>static ;
Target identifier is used to denote a target. The syntax is:
target-id -> (target-name | file-name | project-id | directory-name)
| (project-id | directory-name) "//" target-name
project-id -> path
target-name -> path
file-name -> path
directory-name -> path
This grammar allows some elements to be recognized as either
To determine the real meaning the possible interpretations are checked in this order. For example, valid target ids might be:
a -- target in current project lib/b.cpp -- regular file /boost/thread -- project "/boost/thread" /home/ghost/build/lr_library//parser -- target in specific project ../boost_1_61_0 -- project in specific directory
Rationale:Target is separated from project by special separator (not just slash), because:
Target reference is used to specify a source target, and may additionally specify desired properties for that target. It has this syntax:
target-reference -> target-id [ "/" requested-properties ] requested-properties -> property-path
For example,
exe compiler : compiler.cpp libs/cmdline/<optimization>space ;
would cause the version of cmdline library,
optimized for space, to be linked in even if the
compiler executable is build with optimization for
speed.