how to build autoconf project?

[stsp]

I do this:

p = mod.add_project('configure',
  configure_options : [
    '--prefix=@PREFIX@'
  ],
  verbose: true
)

configure is running OK.

But when I do

$ meson compile --verbose
INFO: autodetecting backend as ninja
INFO: calculating backend command to run: /usr/bin/ninja -v
ninja: no work to do.

... the build isn't running.

I can add this:

run_command(
  'make', '-C', meson.current_build_dir() / 'build',
  check: true,
  verbose: true
)

But in this case it is running make
directly during the setup stage, and
completely silently. I don't suppose
this is an intended use.

What should I do?

[eli-schwartz]

Did you add a p.dependency('some-libname') as a dependency to meson targets that are built by default?

[eli-schwartz]

cc @xclaesse

It seems to not build by default, unless something actually links to it. If it does get built, it is installed as well, even if you manually built it.

[stsp]

Would be good to get that fixed.
In a mean time I added an explicit
run_command() for building, and
find_program() to locate the resulting
binary.
But I am not sure what to do next.
Will it play nicely with toolchain setup
overrides? What should I write in
[binaries]?

[stsp]

Or perhaps I should actually also
add explicit make install to avoid
any confusion.

[stsp]

make install via run_command()
looks problematic. It needs sudo...

If it does get built, it is installed as well, even if you manually built it.

What exactly do you mean?
I can't seem to be able to manually
build it with anything else than
run_command(). And that one
doesn't install.

[eli-schwartz]

If you run ninja <TAB> it will offer autocompletion on targets, one of them will be a subdir.stamp.

So given an external project in some_dep/meson.build you would run ninja some_dep/some_dep.stamp to manually build it.