gprbuild with --db switch

gprbuild with --db switch

[Simon Belmont]

Obstensibly, gprbuild will recognize a "--db dir" switch and pass it
onto gprconfig when spawned (to add an additional knowledge base
directory), but i'm having trouble getting it to do so.  Gprbuild will
not complain about the switch (and even spit out an error if the
directory is invalid), but does not seems to invoke gprconfig with
it.  By turning on the verbosity, the gprconfig line (as invoked by
gprbuild) is quite clearly missing it, and consequently generates the
auto.cgpr from only the original KB.  If i manually run the gprconfig
line as generated by gprbuild, but add the --db switch, the
configuration file is generated as intended.

Is this a known defenciency, or is there an order the switches must be
in, or other 'gotcha' someone knows about?  I have tried most of the
obvious things to no avail.  (Gprbuild Pro 1.4.1, 20100106, Linux)

-sb

Re: gprbuild with --db switch

[Simon Wright]

Simon Belmont <sbelmont700@gmail.com> writes:

> Obstensibly, gprbuild will recognize a "--db dir" switch and pass it
> onto gprconfig when spawned (to add an additional knowledge base
> directory), but i'm having trouble getting it to do so.  Gprbuild will
> not complain about the switch (and even spit out an error if the
> directory is invalid), but does not seems to invoke gprconfig with
> it.  By turning on the verbosity, the gprconfig line (as invoked by
> gprbuild) is quite clearly missing it, and consequently generates the
> auto.cgpr from only the original KB.  If i manually run the gprconfig
> line as generated by gprbuild, but add the --db switch, the
> configuration file is generated as intended.
>
> Is this a known defenciency, or is there an order the switches must be
> in, or other 'gotcha' someone knows about?  I have tried most of the
> obvious things to no avail.  (Gprbuild Pro 1.4.1, 20100106, Linux)

If you're supported (I see you're using Gprbuild Pro), this is the sort
of question AdaCore are only too happy to answer.

If not, you could try the latest gprbuild (from GNAT GPL 2011) from
libre.adacore.com. You should be able to extract just gprbuild & friends
from the download. There may be configuration issues finding the
compiler (--target helps, ISTR), but you seem to be comfortable with
this sort of thing!

Re: gprbuild with --db switch

[Simon Belmont]

On Aug 20, 1:42 pm, Simon Wright <si...@pushface.org> wrote:
> Simon Belmont <sbelmont...@gmail.com> writes:
> > Obstensibly, gprbuild will recognize a "--db dir" switch and pass it
> > onto gprconfig when spawned (to add an additional knowledge base
> > directory), but i'm having trouble getting it to do so.  Gprbuild will
> > not complain about the switch (and even spit out an error if the
> > directory is invalid), but does not seems to invoke gprconfig with
> > it.  By turning on the verbosity, the gprconfig line (as invoked by
> > gprbuild) is quite clearly missing it, and consequently generates the
> > auto.cgpr from only the original KB.  If i manually run the gprconfig
> > line as generated by gprbuild, but add the --db switch, the
> > configuration file is generated as intended.
>
> > Is this a known defenciency, or is there an order the switches must be
> > in, or other 'gotcha' someone knows about?  I have tried most of the
> > obvious things to no avail.  (Gprbuild Pro 1.4.1, 20100106, Linux)
>
> If you're supported (I see you're using Gprbuild Pro), this is the sort
> of question AdaCore are only too happy to answer.
>
> If not, you could try the latest gprbuild (from GNAT GPL 2011) from
> libre.adacore.com. You should be able to extract just gprbuild & friends
> from the download. There may be configuration issues finding the
> compiler (--target helps, ISTR), but you seem to be comfortable with
> this sort of thing!

Thank you for the feedback, but unfortunetly trying to switch versions
would most likely be more paperwork hassle than simply finding a
workaround, especially since putting the .xml in the original KB
location (causes it to be correctly parsed).

However, while I'm posting about silent gprbuild failures, I have
another odd behavior that perhaps someone can verify, or at least
point out what I'm doing incorrectly.  Section 3.3 of the gprbuild
users guide states "All attributes in a configuration project file are
inherited by each user project file in the project tree", which i
interpret to mean just that.  For instance, if the .cgpr file includes
a 'for Default_Language use "ada"', then any .gpr in the project can
reference it, e.g. "foo := project'Default_Language".  The same
dubious version of gprbuild, however, returns all these inherited
attributes as a null string.  Again, it accepts those inherited
attributes as correct syntax (and reports errors if they do not
exist), but they all return a null string.  Does anyone know if this
is this expected behavior?

Again, thank you for time

-sb