path: root/tools/build/doc/src/architecture.xml

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<!DOCTYPE appendix PUBLIC "-//Boost//DTD BoostBook XML V1.0//EN"
  "http://www.boost.org/tools/boostbook/dtd/boostbook.dtd">

  <appendix id="bbv2.arch">
    <title>Boost.Build v2 architecture</title>

  <sidebar>
    <para>
      This document is work-in progress. Do not expect much from it yet.
    </para>
  </sidebar>

  <section id="bbv2.arch.overview">
    <title>Overview</title>

    <!-- FIXME: the below does not mention engine at all, making rest of the
         text confusing. Things like 'kernel' and 'util' don't have to be 
         mentioned at all. -->
    <para>
      Boost.Build implementation is structured in four different components:
    "kernel", "util", "build" and "tools". The first two are relatively
    uninteresting, so we will focus on the remaining pair. The "build" component
    provides classes necessary to declare targets, determining which properties
    should be used for their building, and creating the dependency graph. The
    "tools" component provides user-visible functionality. It mostly allows
    declaring specific kinds of main targets, as well as registering available
    tools, which are then used when creating the dependency graph.
    </para>
  </section>

  <section id="bbv2.arch.build">
    <title>The build layer</title>

    <para>
      The build layer has just four main parts -- metatargets (abstract
    targets), virtual targets, generators and properties.

      <itemizedlist>
        <listitem><para>
          Metatargets (see the "targets.jam" module) represent all the
        user-defined entities that can be built. The "meta" prefix signifies
        that they do not need to correspond to exact files or even files at all
        -- they can produce a different set of files depending on the build
        request. Metatargets are created when Jamfiles are loaded. Each has a
        <code>generate</code> method which is given a property set and produces
        virtual targets for the passed properties.
        </para></listitem>
        <listitem><para>
          Virtual targets (see the "virtual-targets.jam" module) correspond to
        actual atomic updatable entities -- most typically files.
        </para></listitem>
        <listitem><para>
          Properties are just (name, value) pairs, specified by the user and
        describing how targets should be built. Properties are stored using the
        <code>property-set</code> class.
        </para></listitem>
        <listitem><para>
          Generators are objects that encapsulate specific tools -- they can
        take a list of source virtual targets and produce new virtual targets
        from them.
        </para></listitem>
      </itemizedlist>

    </para>

    <para>
      The build process includes the following steps:

      <orderedlist>
        <listitem><para>
          Top-level code calls the <code>generate</code> method of a metatarget
        with some properties.
        </para></listitem>

        <listitem><para>
          The metatarget combines the requested properties with its requirements
        and passes the result, together with the list of sources, to the
        <code>generators.construct</code> function.
        </para></listitem>

        <listitem><para>
          A generator appropriate for the build properties is selected and its
        <code>run</code> method is called. The method returns a list of virtual
        targets.
        </para></listitem>

        <listitem><para>
          The virtual targets are returned to the top level code, and for each instance,
          the <literal>actualize</literal> method is called to setup nodes and updating
          actions in the depenendency graph kepts inside Boost.Build engine. This dependency
          graph is then updated, which runs necessary commands.
        </para></listitem>
      </orderedlist>
    </para>

    <section id="bbv2.arch.build.metatargets">
      <title>Metatargets</title>

      <para>
        There are several classes derived from "abstract-target". The
      "main-target" class represents a top-level main target, the
      "project-target" class acts like a container holding multiple main
      targets, and "basic-target" class is a base class for all further target
      types.
      </para>

      <para>
        Since each main target can have several alternatives, all top-level
      target objects are actually containers, referring to "real" main target
      classes. The type of that container is "main-target". For example, given:
<programlisting>
alias a ;
lib a : a.cpp : &lt;toolset&gt;gcc ;
</programlisting>
      we would have one-top level "main-target" instance, containing one
      "alias-target" and one "lib-target" instance. "main-target"'s "generate"
      method decides which of the alternative should be used, and calls
      "generate" on the corresponding instance.
      </para>

      <para>
        Each alternative is an instance of a class derived from "basic-target".
      "basic-target.generate" does several things that should always be done:

        <itemizedlist>
          <listitem><para>
            Determines what properties should be used for building the target.
          This includes looking at requested properties, requirements, and usage
          requirements of all sources.
          </para></listitem>

          <listitem><para>
            Builds all sources.
          </para></listitem>

          <listitem><para>
            Computes usage requirements that should be passed back to targets
          depending on this one.
          </para></listitem>
        </itemizedlist>

      For the real work of constructing a virtual target, a new method
      "construct" is called.
      </para>

      <para>
        The "construct" method can be implemented in any way by classes derived
      from "basic-target", but one specific derived class plays the central role
      -- "typed-target". That class holds the desired type of file to be
      produced, and its "construct" method uses the generators module to do the
      actual work.
      </para>

      <para>
        This means that a specific metatarget subclass may avoid using
      generators all together. However, this is deprecated and we are trying to
      eliminate all such subclasses at the moment.
      </para>

      <para>
        Note that the <filename>build/targets.jam</filename> file contains an
      UML diagram which might help.
      </para>
    </section>

    <section id="bbv2.arch.build.virtual">
      <title>Virtual targets</title>

      <para>
        Virtual targets are atomic updatable entities. Each virtual
      target can be assigned an updating action -- instance of the
      <code>action</code> class. The action class, in turn, contains a list of
      source targets, properties, and a name of an action which 
      should be executed.
      </para>

      <para>
        We try hard to never create equal instances of the
      <code>virtual-target</code> class. Code creating virtual targets passes
      them though the <code>virtual-target.register</code> function, which
      detects if a target with the same name, sources, and properties has
      already been created. In that case, the preexisting target is returned.
      </para>

      <!-- FIXME: the below 2 para are rubbish, must be totally rewritten. -->
      <para>
        When all virtual targets are produced, they are "actualized". This means
      that the real file names are computed, and the commands that should be run
      are generated. This is done by the <code>virtual-target.actualize</code>
      and <code>action.actualize</code> methods. The first is conceptually
      simple, while the second needs additional explanation. Commands in Boost.Build
      are generated in a two-stage process. First, a rule with an appropriate
      name (for example "gcc.compile") is called and is given a list of target
      names. The rule sets some variables, like "OPTIONS". After that, the
      command string is taken, and variable are substitutes, so use of OPTIONS
      inside the command string gets transformed into actual compile options.
      </para>

      <para>
        Boost.Build added a third stage to simplify things. It is now possible
      to automatically convert properties to appropriate variable assignments.
      For example, &lt;debug-symbols&gt;on would add "-g" to the OPTIONS
      variable, without requiring to manually add this logic to gcc.compile.
      This functionality is part of the "toolset" module.
      </para>

      <para>
        Note that the <filename>build/virtual-targets.jam</filename> file
      contains an UML diagram which might help.
      </para>
    </section>

    <section id="bbv2.arch.build.properties">
      <title>Properties</title>

      <para>
        Above, we noted that metatargets are built with a set of properties.
      That set is represented by the <code>property-set</code> class. An
      important point is that handling of property sets can get very expensive.
      For that reason, we make sure that for each set of (name, value) pairs
      only one <code>property-set</code> instance is created. The
      <code>property-set</code> uses extensive caching for all operations, so
      most work is avoided. The <code>property-set.create</code> is the factory
      function used to create instances of the <code>property-set</code> class.
      </para>
    </section>
  </section>

  <section id="bbv2.arch.tools">
    <title>The tools layer</title>

    <para>Write me!</para>
  </section>

  <section id="bbv2.arch.targets">
    <title>Targets</title>

    <para>NOTE: THIS SECTION IS NOT EXPECTED TO BE READ!
      There are two user-visible kinds of targets in Boost.Build. First are
    "abstract" &#x2014; they correspond to things declared by the user, e.g.
    projects and executable files. The primary thing about abstract targets is
    that it is possible to request them to be built with a particular set of
    properties. Each property combination may possibly yield different built
    files, so abstract target do not have a direct correspondence to built
    files.
    </para>

    <para>
      File targets, on the other hand, are associated with concrete files.
    Dependency graphs for abstract targets with specific properties are
    constructed from file targets. User has no way to create file targets but
    can specify rules for detecting source file types, as well as rules for
    transforming between file targets of different types. That information is
    used in constructing the final dependency graph, as described in the <link
    linkend="bbv2.arch.depends">next section</link>.
    <emphasis role="bold">Note:</emphasis>File targets are not the same entities
    as Jam targets; the latter are created from file targets at the latest
    possible moment.
    <emphasis role="bold">Note:</emphasis>"File target" is an originally
    proposed name for what we now call virtual targets. It is more
    understandable by users, but has one problem: virtual targets can
    potentially be "phony", and not correspond to any file.
    </para>
  </section>

  <section id="bbv2.arch.depends">
    <title>Dependency scanning</title>

    <para>
      Dependency scanning is the process of finding implicit dependencies, like
      "#include" statements in C++. The requirements for correct dependency
      scanning mechanism are:
    </para>

    <itemizedlist>
      <listitem><simpara>
        <link linkend="bbv2.arch.depends.different-scanning-algorithms">Support
      for different scanning algorithms</link>. C++ and XML have quite different
      syntax for includes and rules for looking up the included files.
      </simpara></listitem>

      <listitem><simpara>
        <link linkend="bbv2.arch.depends.same-file-different-scanners">Ability
      to scan the same file several times</link>. For example, a single C++ file
      may be compiled using different include paths.
      </simpara></listitem>

      <listitem><simpara>
        <link linkend="bbv2.arch.depends.dependencies-on-generated-files">Proper
      detection of dependencies on generated files.</link>
      </simpara></listitem>

      <listitem><simpara>
        <link
      linkend="bbv2.arch.depends.dependencies-from-generatedfiles">Proper
      detection of dependencies from a generated file.</link>
      </simpara></listitem>
    </itemizedlist>

    <section id="bbv2.arch.depends.different-scanning-algorithms">
      <title>Support for different scanning algorithms</title>

      <para>
        Different scanning algorithm are encapsulated by objects called
      "scanners". Please see the "scanner" module documentation for more
      details.
      </para>
    </section>

    <section id="bbv2.arch.depends.same-file-different-scanners">
      <title>Ability to scan the same file several times</title>

      <para>
        As stated above, it is possible to compile a C++ file multiple times,
      using different include paths. Therefore, include dependencies for those
      compilations can be different. The problem is that Boost.Build engine does 
      not allow multiple scans of the same target. To solve that, we pass the
      scanner object when calling <literal>virtual-target.actualize</literal>
      and it creates different engine targets for different scanners.
      </para>

      <para>
        For each engine target created with a specified scanner, a
      corresponding one is created without it. The updating action is
      associated with the scanner-less target, and the target with the scanner
      is made to depend on it. That way if sources for that action are touched,
      all targets &#x2014; with and without the scanner are considered outdated.
      </para>

      <para>
        Consider the following example: "a.cpp" prepared from "a.verbatim",
      compiled by two compilers using different include paths and copied into
      some install location. The dependency graph would look like:
      </para>

<programlisting>
a.o (&lt;toolset&gt;gcc)        &lt;--(compile)-- a.cpp (scanner1) ----+
a.o (&lt;toolset&gt;msvc)       &lt;--(compile)-- a.cpp (scanner2) ----|
a.cpp (installed copy)    &lt;--(copy) ----------------------- a.cpp (no scanner)
                                                                 ^
                                                                 |
                       a.verbose --------------------------------+
</programlisting>
    </section>

    <section id="bbv2.arch.depends.dependencies-on-generated-files">
      <title>Proper detection of dependencies on generated files.</title>

      <para>
        This requirement breaks down to the following ones.
      </para>

      <orderedlist>
        <listitem><simpara>
          If when compiling "a.cpp" there is an include of "a.h", the "dir"
        directory is on the include path, and a target called "a.h" will be
        generated in "dir", then Boost.Build should discover the include, and create
        "a.h" before compiling "a.cpp".
        </simpara></listitem>

        <listitem><simpara>
          Since Boost.Build almost always generates targets under the "bin"
        directory, this should be supported as well. I.e. in the scenario above,
        Jamfile in "dir" might create a main target, which generates "a.h". The
        file will be generated to "dir/bin" directory, but we still have to
        recognize the dependency.
        </simpara></listitem>
      </orderedlist>

      <para>
        The first requirement means that when determining what "a.h" means when
      found in "a.cpp", we have to iterate over all directories in include
      paths, checking for each one:
      </para>

      <orderedlist>
        <listitem><simpara>
          If there is a file named "a.h" in that directory, or
        </simpara></listitem>

        <listitem><simpara>
          If there is a target called "a.h", which will be generated in that
        that directory.
        </simpara></listitem>
      </orderedlist>

      <para>
        Classic Jam has built-in facilities for point (1) above, but that is not
      enough. It is hard to implement the right semantics without builtin
      support. For example, we could try to check if there exists a target
      called "a.h" somewhere in the dependency graph, and add a dependency to
      it. The problem is that without a file search in the include path, the
      semantics may be incorrect. For example, one can have an action that
      generated some "dummy" header, for systems which do not have a native one.
      Naturally, we do not want to depend on that generated header on platforms
      where a native one is included.
      </para>

      <para>
        There are two design choices for builtin support. Suppose we have files
      a.cpp and b.cpp, and each one includes header.h, generated by some action.
      Dependency graph created by classic Jam would look like:

<programlisting>
a.cpp -----&gt; &lt;scanner1&gt;header.h  [search path: d1, d2, d3]

                  &lt;d2&gt;header.h  --------&gt; header.y
                  [generated in d2]

b.cpp -----&gt; &lt;scanner2&gt;header.h  [search path: d1, d2, d4]
</programlisting>
      </para>

      <para>
        In this case, Jam thinks all header.h target are not related. The
      correct dependency graph might be:

<programlisting>
a.cpp ----
          \
           &gt;----&gt;  &lt;d2&gt;header.h  --------&gt; header.y
          /       [generated in d2]
b.cpp ----
</programlisting>

    or

<programlisting>
a.cpp -----&gt; &lt;scanner1&gt;header.h  [search path: d1, d2, d3]
                          |
                       (includes)
                          V
                  &lt;d2&gt;header.h  --------&gt; header.y
                  [generated in d2]
                          ^
                      (includes)
                          |
b.cpp -----&gt; &lt;scanner2&gt;header.h [ search path: d1, d2, d4]
</programlisting>
      </para>

      <para>
        The first alternative was used for some time. The problem however is:
      what include paths should be used when scanning header.h? The second
      alternative was suggested by Matt Armstrong. It has a similar effect: Any
      target depending on &lt;scanner1&gt;header.h will also depend on
      &lt;d2&gt;header.h. This way though we now have two different targets with
      two different scanners, so those targets can be scanned independently. The
      first alternative's problem is avoided, so the second alternative is
      implemented now.
      </para>

      <para>
        The second sub-requirements is that targets generated under the "bin"
      directory are handled as well. Boost.Build implements a semi-automatic
      approach. When compiling C++ files the process is:
      </para>

      <orderedlist>
        <listitem><simpara>
          The main target to which the compiled file belongs to is found.
        </simpara></listitem>

        <listitem><simpara>
          All other main targets that the found one depends on are found. These
        include: main targets used as sources as well as those specified as
        "dependency" properties.
        </simpara></listitem>

        <listitem><simpara>
          All directories where files belonging to those main targets will be
        generated are added to the include path.
        </simpara></listitem>
      </orderedlist>

      <para>
        After this is done, dependencies are found by the approach explained
      previously.
      </para>

      <para>
        Note that if a target uses generated headers from another main target,
      that main target should be explicitly specified using the dependency
      property. It would be better to lift this requirement, but it does not
      seem to be causing any problems in practice.
      </para>

      <para>
        For target types other than C++, adding of include paths must be
      implemented anew.
      </para>
    </section>

    <section id="bbv2.arch.depends.dependencies-from-generated-files">
      <title>Proper detection of dependencies from generated files</title>

      <para>
        Suppose file "a.cpp" includes "a.h" and both are generated by some
      action. Note that classic Jam has two stages. In the first stage the
      dependency graph is built and actions to be run are determined. In the
      second stage the actions are executed. Initially, neither file exists, so
      the include is not found. As the result, Jam might attempt to compile
      a.cpp before creating a.h, causing the compilation to fail.
      </para>

      <para>
        The solution in Boost.Jam is to perform additional dependency scans
      after targets are updated. This breaks separation between build stages in
      Jam &#x2014; which some people consider a good thing &#x2014; but I am not
      aware of any better solution.
      </para>

      <para>
        In order to understand the rest of this section, you better read some
      details about Jam's dependency scanning, available at <ulink url=
      "http://public.perforce.com:8080/@md=d&amp;cd=//public/jam/src/&amp;ra=s&amp;c=kVu@//2614?ac=10">
      this link</ulink>.
      </para>

      <para>
        Whenever a target is updated, Boost.Jam rescans it for includes.
      Consider this graph, created before any actions are run.
<programlisting>
A -------&gt; C ----&gt; C.pro
     /
B --/         C-includes   ---&gt; D
</programlisting>
      </para>

      <para>
        Both A and B have dependency on C and C-includes (the latter dependency
      is not shown). Say during building we have tried to create A, then tried
      to create C and successfully created C.
      </para>

      <para>
        In that case, the set of includes in C might well have changed. We do
      not bother to detect precisely which includes were added or removed.
      Instead we create another internal node C-includes-2. Then we determine
      what actions should be run to update the target. In fact this means that
      we perform the first stage logic when already in the execution stage.
      </para>

      <para>
        After actions for C-includes-2 are determined, we add C-includes-2 to
      the list of A's dependents, and stage 2 proceeds as usual. Unfortunately,
      we can not do the same with target B, since when it is not visited, C
      target does not know B depends on it. So, we add a flag to C marking it as
      rescanned. When visiting the B target, the flag is noticed and
      C-includes-2 is added to the list of B's dependencies as well.
      </para>

      <para>
        Note also that internal nodes are sometimes updated too. Consider this
      dependency graph:
<programlisting>
a.o ---&gt; a.cpp
            a.cpp-includes --&gt;  a.h (scanned)
                                   a.h-includes ------&gt; a.h (generated)
                                                                 |
                                                                 |
            a.pro &lt;-------------------------------------------+
</programlisting>
      </para>

      <para>
        Here, our handling of generated headers come into play. Say that a.h
      exists but is out of date with respect to "a.pro", then "a.h (generated)"
      and "a.h-includes" will be marked for updating, but "a.h (scanned)" will
      not. We have to rescan "a.h" after it has been created, but since "a.h
      (generated)" has no associated scanner, it is only possible to rescan
      "a.h" after "a.h-includes" target has been updated.
      </para>

      <para>
        The above consideration lead to the decision to rescan a target whenever
      it is updated, no matter if it is internal or not.
      </para>

    </section>
  </section>

  <warning>
    <para>
      The remainder of this document is not intended to be read at all. This
    will be rearranged in the future.
    </para>
  </warning>

  <section>
    <title>File targets</title>

    <para>
      As described above, file targets correspond to files that Boost.Build
    manages. Users may be concerned about file targets in three ways: when
    declaring file target types, when declaring transformations between types
    and when determining where a file target is to be placed. File targets can
    also be connected to actions that determine how the target is to be created.
    Both file targets and actions are implemented in the
    <literal>virtual-target</literal> module.
    </para>

    <section>
      <title>Types</title>

      <para>
        A file target can be given a type, which determines what transformations
      can be applied to the file. The <literal>type.register</literal> rule
      declares new types. File type can also be assigned a scanner, which is
      then used to find implicit dependencies. See "<link
      linkend="bbv2.arch.depends">dependency scanning</link>".
      </para>
    </section>

    <section>
      <title>Target paths</title>

      <para>
        To distinguish targets build with different properties, they are put in
      different directories. Rules for determining target paths are given below:
      </para>

      <orderedlist>
        <listitem><simpara>
          All targets are placed under a directory corresponding to the project
        where they are defined.
        </simpara></listitem>

        <listitem><simpara>
          Each non free, non incidental property causes an additional element to
        be added to the target path. That element has the the form
        <literal>&lt;feature-name&gt;-&lt;feature-value&gt;</literal> for
        ordinary features and <literal>&lt;feature-value&gt;</literal> for
        implicit ones. [TODO: Add note about composite features].
        </simpara></listitem>

        <listitem><simpara>
          If the set of free, non incidental properties is different from the
        set of free, non incidental properties for the project in which the main
        target that uses the target is defined, a part of the form
        <literal>main_target-&lt;name&gt;</literal> is added to the target path.
        <emphasis role="bold">Note:</emphasis>It would be nice to completely
        track free features also, but this appears to be complex and not
        extremely needed.
        </simpara></listitem>
      </orderedlist>

      <para>
        For example, we might have these paths:
<programlisting>
debug/optimization-off
debug/main-target-a
</programlisting>
      </para>
    </section>
  </section>

  </appendix>

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