C/C++: I there a way to use Gradle to drive SCons?

Old Forum Archive
1

Currently, I have a Makefile whose targets drive SCons commands. Although I am slowly converting to Gradle, I can’t just get rid of SCons because Gradle currently does not handle parallel builds for native code. So, is there a recommended way and/or best practice way and/or example showing how I can use Gradle to call SCons?

Exmaple:

fileserver:
        scons --jobs=8 -f SConstruct_FileServer --deploydir=$(PKGDESTDIR) $(FILESERVER_ARGS);
  hoststats: fileclient
        scons --jobs=8 -f SConstruct_Hoststats --hadoopdir=$(HADOOP_DIR) --deploydir=$(PKGDESTDIR) $(FILESERVER_ARGS);
  hoststats-only:
        scons --jobs=8 -f SConstruct_Hoststats --hadoopdir=$(HADOOP_DIR) --deploydir=$(PKGDESTDIR) $(FILESERVER_ARGS) ;
  oozieexecute-cc = cd fs/.. &&\
        scons --jobs=8 -f SConstruct_OozieExecute --hadoopdir=$(HADOOP_DIR) --deploydir=$(PKGDESTDIR) $(FILECLIENT_ARGS) ;

Yes, I know it’s a mess. Yes, I’m trying to fix it.

2

You’d have to use an ‘Exec’ task. (See ‘Exec’ in the Gradle Build Language Reference.)

3

Is the lack of parallel compile the only thing preventing you from switching away from SCons? We expect to have this feature implemented fairly soon.

Note that in a multi-project build scenario, running with ‘–parallel’ can provide a fair amount of parallelization, even without parallel compilation of C/C++ sources.

4

Yes, but this is one of many reason why we haven’t switched from SCons. I am one person trying to convert our steaming pile of technology to Gradle. Benjamin Muschko knows of my C/C++ woes.