[ET Trac] [Einstein Toolkit] #1298: Run part of CST before external libraries

[Einstein Toolkit]

#1298: Run part of CST before external libraries
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  Reporter:  knarf        |       Owner:                     
      Type:  enhancement  |      Status:  new                
  Priority:  minor        |   Milestone:                     
 Component:  Cactus       |     Version:  development version
Resolution:               |    Keywords:                     
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Comment (by eschnett):

 We are currently mis-using the configuration stage to build external
 libraries. This stage is support to detect (like autoconf) what features
 are present on the system. Building a significant amount of code there
 should not happen. Instead, we should record the findings (whether a
 particular library has been found on the system or not), and then build
 the library as the thorn is built. The existing dependency mechanisms
 should already ensure that the thorn is built before other thorns
 depending on it.

 The current scripts that build external libraries consist essentially of
 two parts, a configuration part and a build part. It should be
 straightforward to separate these, and to call the build part from
 make.code.defn.

 One issue is then how to provide the configuration information for the
 libraries before they are built. In most cases, this is simple, but in
 some cases, we call e.g. pkg-config of the recently-built external
 library, and this would not work any more. However, it should not be
 difficult to work around this, since we know exactly what version of what
 library is going to be installed, and in most cases, the pkg-config
 information is not reliable anyway.

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Ticket URL: <https://trac.einsteintoolkit.org/ticket/1298#comment:1>
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