dds/docs/guide/build-deps.rst

Building and Using ``dds`` in Another Build System
##################################################

One of ``dds``'s primary goals is to inter-operate with other build systems
cleanly. One of ``dds``'s primary outputs is *libman* package indices. These
package indices can be imported into other build systems that support the
`libman`_ format. (At the time of writing there is a CMake module which can do
the import, but other build systems are planned.)

.. _libman: https://api.csswg.org/bikeshed/?force=1&url=https://raw.githubusercontent.com/vector-of-bool/libman/develop/data/spec.bs

.. _PMM: https://github.com/vector-of-bool/PMM

.. _CMakeCM: https://github.com/vector-of-bool/CMakeCM

.. _lm-cmake: https://raw.githubusercontent.com/vector-of-bool/libman/develop/cmake/libman.cmake


.. _build-deps.gen-libman:

Generating a libman Index
*************************

Importing libman packages into a build system requires that we have a libman
index generated on the filesystem. **This index is not generated globally**: It
is generated on a per-build basis as part of the build setup. The index will
describe in build-system-agnostic terms how to include a set of packages and
libraries as part of a build.

``dds`` has first-class support for generating this index. The ``build-deps``
subcommand of ``dds`` will download and build a set of dependencies, and places
an ``INDEX.lmi`` file that can be used to import the built results.


Declaring Dependencies
======================

``dds build-deps`` accepts a list of dependency statements as command line
arguments, but it may be useful to specify those requirements in a file.

``dds build-deps`` accepts a JSON5 file describing the dependencies of a
project as well. This file is similar to a very stripped-down version of a
``dds`` :ref:`package manifest <pkgs.pkgs>`, and only includes the ``depends``
key. (The presence of any other key is an error.)

Here is a simple dependencies file that declares a single requirement:

.. code-block:: js
  :caption: ``dependencies.json5``

  {
    depends: [
      'neo-sqlite3^0.2.0',
    ]
  }


Building Dependencies and the Index
===================================

We can invoke ``dds build-deps`` and give it the path to this file:

.. code-block:: bash

  $ dds build-deps --deps-file dependencies.json5

When finished, ``dds`` will write the build results into a subdirectory called
``_deps`` and generate a file named ``INDEX.lmi``. This file is ready to be
imported into any build system that can understand libman files.

.. note::
  The output directory and index filepath can be controlled with the
  ``--out`` and ``--lmi-path`` flags, respectively.


Importing an Index: CMake
*************************

.. highlight:: cmake

.. note::

  This section discusses how to import ``INDEX.lmi`` into CMake, but ``dds``
  also has built-in support for generating a CMake targets file. See
  :doc:`/howto/cmake` and :doc:`cmake` for even simpler integration steps.

Supposed that we've generated a libman index and set of packages, and we want to
import them into CMake. CMake doesn't know how to do this natively, but there
exists a single-file module for CMake that allows CMake to import libraries from
libman indices without any additional work.

The module is not shipped with CMake, but is available online as a single
stand-alone file. The `libman.cmake <lm-cmake_>`_ file can be downloaded and
added to a project directly, or it can be obtained automatically through a
CMake tool like `PMM`_ (recommended).


Getting ``libman.cmake`` via PMM
================================

Refer to the ``README.md`` file in `the PMM repo <PMM_>`_ for information on how
to get PMM into your CMake project. In short, download and place the
``pmm.cmake`` file in your repository, and ``include()`` the file near the top
of your ``CMakeLists.txt``::

  include(pmm.cmake)

Once it has been included, you can call the ``pmm()`` function. To obtain
*libman*, we need to start by enabling `CMakeCM`_::

  pmm(CMakeCM ROLLING)

.. warning::
  It is not recommended to use the ``ROLLING`` mode, but it is the easiest to
  use when getting started. For reproducible and reliable builds, you should
  pin your CMakeCM version using the ``FROM <url>`` argument.

Enabling CMakeCM will make available all of the CMake modules available in `the
CMakeCM repository <CMakeCM_>`_, which includes `libman.cmake <lm-cmake_>`_.

After the call to ``pmm()``, simply ``include()`` the ``libman`` module::

  include(libman)

That's it! The only function from the module that we will care about for now
is the ``import_packages()`` function.


Importing Our Dependencies' Packages
====================================

To import a package from a libman tree, we need only know the *name* of the
package we wish to import. In our example case above, we depend on
``neo-sqlite3``, so we simply call the libman-CMake function
``import_packages()`` with that package name::

  import_packages("neo-sqlite3")

You'll note that we don't request any particular version of the package: All
versioning resolution is handled by ``dds``. You'll also note that we don't
need to specify our transitive dependencies: This is handled by the libman
index that was generated by ``dds``: It will automatically ``import_packages()``
any of the transitive dependencies required.

More than one package name can be provided to a single call to
``import_packages()``, and ``import_packages()`` may be called multiple times
within a CMake project.


Using Our Dependencies' Libraries
=================================

Like with ``dds``, CMake wants us to explicitly declare how our build targets
*use* other libraries. When we import a package from a libman index, the
import will generate CMake ``IMPORTED`` targets that can be linked against.

In ``dds`` and in libman, a library is identified by a combination of
*namespace* and *name*, joined together with a slash ``/`` character. This
*qualified name* of a library is decided by the original package author, and
should be documented. In the case of ``neo-sqlite3``, the only library is
``neo/sqlite3``.

When the libman CMake module imports a library, it creates a qualified name
using a double-colon "``::``" instead of a slash. As such, our ``neo/sqlite3``
is imported in CMake as ``neo::sqlite3``. We can link against it as we would
with any other target::

  add_executable(my-application app.cpp)
  target_link_libraries(my-application PRIVATE neo::sqlite3)

Altogether, here is the final CMake file:

.. code-block::
  :caption: ``CMakeLists.txt``
  :linenos:

  cmake_minimum_required(VERSION 3.15)
  project(MyApplication VERSION 1.0.0)

  include(pmm.cmake)
  pmm(CMakeCM ROLLING)

  include(libman)
  import_packages("neo-sqlite3")

  add_executable(my-application app.cpp)
  target_link_libraries(my-application PRIVATE neo::sqlite3)