nim-lang
Allow specifying dependencies in `.compile.` to make rebuild logic correct
Summary
When compiling a c file, it might have dependencies (its #include files) which nim doesn't know about - when such dependencies are changed, the C file needs recompilation which currently does not happen.
Description
This could be resolved by adding a parameter to .compile("myfile.c", flags = "...", dependencies = [myfile1.h, ...]). - alternatively, a smarter version would discover such dependencies automatically (using gcc -MD and similar flags, parsing the output)
Alternatives
No response
Examples
No response
Backwards Compatibility
No response
Links
No response
Fwiw, it was always supposed to be used as "if .c file deps changed, invoke with the -f switch".
-f is a blunt tool - ie projects might have hundreds of c files to compile (like ours do) so recompiling all of them is messy - it's also inconvenient when using any sort of tooling (like a code editor) where adding a flag to a one-off compilation requires extra manual steps.
The aim is to have nim c "just work" without having to teach magic flags like -f which are only used in exceptional cases.