[debhelper-devel] Bug#895044: Bug#895044: debhelper: add support for Ninja with CMake

[Kyle Edwards]

On 04/06/2018 04:15 PM, Niels Thykier wrote:
> Control: tags -1 +patch
>
> Kyle Edwards:
>> Package: debhelper
>> Version: 11.1.6
>> Severity: wishlist
>>
>> Dear Maintainer,
>>
>> Large projects which use CMake, such as VTK, take a long time to build
>> with the Makefile generator, and see significant build time improvements
>> when being built with the Ninja generator instead. Please consider
>> adding support for using the Ninja generator with CMake. Perhaps
>> something like:
>>
>> $ dh --buildsystem=cmakeninja
>>
>> I realize this may be tricky given how the buildsystems are implemented
>> in debhelper. I don't know much about Perl, but if it supports multiple
>> inheritance, would it be possible to make a class like "cmakebase" and
>> then have "cmake" and "cmakeninja" inherit from both "cmakebase" and
>> then "makefile" and "ninja" respectively?
>>
>>
>> [...]
> Ok, I have written a sample patch series (attached) that should make
> debhelper support cmake with the ninja backend.
>
> The chosen syntax is:
>
>    dh <target> --buildsystem=cmake+ninja
>
> A review and some testing would be appreciated.
>
> Thanks,
> ~Niels
>

Just tested it, and I like it.

One thing I did notice is that if your project doesn't have tests, you 
have to turn on nocheck when switching to cmake+ninja, because the ninja 
buildsystem fails if no "test" target exists (the makefile buildsystem 
seems to silently ignore the failure.) I don't think this is a 
deal-breaker, but it is something to keep in mind when switching to 
ninja. Perhaps this could be filed as a separate bug.

Thank you for the quick response! I hope to see this in debhelper soon.

Kyle