Copy the C header file in /usr/local/include

[dunglas]

Currently, it's a bit difficult for end users to install the C bindings. Couldn't we update the Cmake definition to automatically (or through an option) compile the C bindings, and copy the file to include in the system include path?

Also, this will help to add a formula for this lib in Homebrew.

[e-dant]

Yes, absolutely

[e-dant]

Added in 0.13.1, check out this: https://github.com/e-dant/watcher/actions/runs/11491524051/job/31984241215#step:11:1 for a dump of the artifacts from a typical cmake build on macOS, re. homebrew.

[e-dant]

Also -- The headers and the shared library are available for a variety of platforms/triples in the release artifacts, in case that's easier than cmake (or meson).

[dunglas]

Thank you very much.

I'm looking for simple instructions for end users to install the library without building useless artifacts.

I used the typical cmake invocation:

cmake -S . -B build -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=Release
cmake --build build/
sudo cmake --install build

This works, but a lot of files useless for production are compiled and installed, including sanitizers and snitch builds.

Setting -DWTR_WATCHER_BUILD_TEST=OFF -DWTR_WATCHER_BUILD_ASAN=OFF -DWTR_WATCHER_BUILD_MSAN=OFF -DWTR_WATCHER_BUILD_TSAN=OFF -DWTR_WATCHER_BUILD_UBSAN=OFF does not seem to help, the testing files are still installed.

The "standard" -DBUILD_TESTING=OFF is not defined.

Is there a way to build and install only production files? Could we add support for DBUILD_TESTING=OFF?

Thanks!

[e-dant]

Yes of course!

[e-dant]

How do these options look?

(Example snippet w/ no sanitizers, no tests)

$ cmake -S . -B out/tmp -DBUILD_TEST=OFF -DBUILD_SAN=OFF
...
-- wtr.hdr_watcher: Added (BUILD_HDR=ON)
-- watcher-c-hdr: Added (BUILD_HDR=ON)
-- watcher-c-shared: Added (BUILD_LIB=ON)
-- watcher-c-static: Added (BUILD_LIB=ON)
-- wtr.watcher: Skipped (BUILD_TEST=OFF)
-- wtr.watcher.asan: Skipped (BUILD_SAN=OFF)
-- wtr.watcher.msan: Skipped (BUILD_SAN=OFF)
-- wtr.watcher.tsan: Skipped (BUILD_SAN=OFF)
-- wtr.watcher.ubsan: Skipped (BUILD_SAN=OFF)
-- tw: Skipped (BUILD_TEST=OFF)
-- tw.asan: Skipped (BUILD_SAN=OFF)
-- tw.msan: Skipped (BUILD_SAN=OFF)
-- tw.tsan: Skipped (BUILD_SAN=OFF)
-- tw.ubsan: Skipped (BUILD_SAN=OFF)
-- wtr.test_watcher: Skipped (BUILD_TEST=OFF)
-- wtr.test_watcher.asan: Skipped (BUILD_SAN=OFF)
-- wtr.test_watcher.msan: Skipped (BUILD_SAN=OFF)
-- wtr.test_watcher.tsan: Skipped (BUILD_SAN=OFF)
-- wtr.test_watcher.ubsan: Skipped (BUILD_SAN=OFF)
-- portable-destructive-rename: Skipped (BUILD_TEST=OFF)
...

[e-dant]

Where the full set of options is:

option(BUILD_LIB   "Create a target for the watcher-c libraries"          ON)
option(BUILD_BIN   "Create a target for the CLI binaries"                 ON)
option(BUILD_HDR   "Create a target for the watcher headers"              ON)
option(BUILD_TEST  "Create a target for the test programs"                ON)
option(BUILD_SAN   "Mega-option to allow sanitizers"                      ON)
option(BUILD_ASAN  "Create a target for the address sanitizer"            ON)
option(BUILD_MSAN  "Create a target for the memory sanitizer"             ON)
option(BUILD_TSAN  "Create a target for the thread sanitizer"             ON)
option(BUILD_UBSAN "Create a target for the undefined behavior sanitizer" ON)

[dunglas]

This looks good to me. What do you think about adding a BUILD_TESTING mega option that will set BUILD_TEST and BUILD_SAN to off? This option looks pretty standard and is added by default by Homebrew.

Thank you very much for your work on this!!

[e-dant]

Fixed in https://github.com/e-dant/watcher/commit/55e6b15781f4933ed1278b81cecdcc3194d3a3b0, I'll cut a release if https://github.com/e-dant/watcher/issues/59 is resolvable

[e-dant]

Well... Let me fixup some build errors first...

[dunglas]

I confirm that the next branch works as expected, thank you!

Another related thing: is it desirable/needable to install the wtr.watcher and tw binary in the system path? At least, maybe the tw binary should be renamed for something more explictiy like tiny_watcher?

[e-dant]

Another related thing: is it desirable/needable to install the wtr.watcher and tw binary in the system path? At least, maybe the tw binary should be renamed for something more explictiy like tiny_watcher?

Yeah, great question, and one which I've asked myself a lot.

The wtr.watcher binary started as an example of the library, but quickly turned into something that I used a lot. Brewing up quick scripts that

• reload files
• notify me of suspicious changes
• undo changes on files that I don't want to be modified

Are examples of things I have running on my system.

I use wtr.watcher for that, and so it's useful for me personally to have it as an installation candidate.

tw is has a somewhat similar story; started as an example, but grew into something that I actually use. In this case, I find the output more human readable, so I tend to use it for interactive sessions.

---

You might notice a lot of "personally" or "for me" phrases up there -- that's really what I wonder about -- are these programs actually useful for other people? What do people use this project for; libraries or programs?

I don't know.

---

I started thinking about this one much more when I created examples in some of the other languages we support (Rust/Node.js/Python/C) which all do similar things.

What makes one of those programs less important than the original C++ programs? Which should we prefer, if any?

---

Your thoughts are definitely appreciated here.

[e-dant]

For the naming, I've been hesitant to change things in case there are people relying on them as-is. (But I think we can/should do it.)

However, if we change the binary names, I'd also like to change wtr.watcher (nearly nothing else in the universe has a . in a program name, and it was a mistake)

[LineGM]

This looks good to me. What do you think about adding a BUILD_TESTING mega option that will set BUILD_TEST and BUILD_SAN to off? This option looks pretty standard and is added by default by Homebrew.

In CMake there is already a BUILD_TESTING variable (https://cmake.org/cmake/help/git-stage/variable/BUILD_TESTING.html) I ran into a problem when I used this project as a dependency (using FetchContent). I didn't want to build tests for this dependency and set this option to OFF, but this also disables tests in my project. Maybe I'm missing something and it's possible to select an option for a specific CMake project?

[e-dant]

I am unfortunately not a CMake expert, and I'm not sure the best way to help.

However, I'm more than happy to change things in ways that make our CMake file more friendly to fetchcontent for this.

Any thoughts about the best thing to do here?

[LineGM]

I have found a workaround specifically for my project. The only thing that does not allow my project to build at once is cmake_minimum_required(VERSION 3.9). I have to change it manually to 3.10 :) @e-dant maybe bump CMake version to 3.10, because in 3.31 anything < 3.10 is deprecated. https://cmake.org/cmake/help/latest/command/cmake_minimum_required.html#policy-settings

[dunglas]

For the record, I opened a PR to add watcher to Homebrew: https://github.com/Homebrew/homebrew-core/pull/201096

[e-dant]

For the record, I opened a PR to add watcher to Homebrew: https://github.com/Homebrew/homebrew-core/pull/201096

This is so awesome!