1 files changed, 216 insertions, 0 deletions
diff --git a/doc/user/sideeffect.in b/doc/user/sideeffect.in
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..58c7306
--- /dev/null
+++ b/doc/user/sideeffect.in
@@ -0,0 +1,216 @@
+<!--
+
+  Copyright (c) 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009 The SCons Foundation
+
+  Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining
+  a copy of this software and associated documentation files (the
+  "Software"), to deal in the Software without restriction, including
+  without limitation the rights to use, copy, modify, merge, publish,
+  distribute, sublicense, and/or sell copies of the Software, and to
+  permit persons to whom the Software is furnished to do so, subject to
+  the following conditions:
+
+  The above copyright notice and this permission notice shall be included
+  in all copies or substantial portions of the Software.
+
+  THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS", WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY
+  KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE
+  WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND
+  NONINFRINGEMENT. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE AUTHORS OR COPYRIGHT HOLDERS BE
+  LIABLE FOR ANY CLAIM, DAMAGES OR OTHER LIABILITY, WHETHER IN AN ACTION
+  OF CONTRACT, TORT OR OTHERWISE, ARISING FROM, OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION
+  WITH THE SOFTWARE OR THE USE OR OTHER DEALINGS IN THE SOFTWARE.
+
+-->
+
+ <!--
+
+ <para>
+
+ If &SCons; is unaware that a build step produces an extra file,
+ the &SideEffect; method can be used to identify it,
+ so that the file can be used as a dependency in subsequent build steps.
+ However, the primary use for the &SideEffect; method
+ is to prevent two build steps from simultaneously modifying the same file.
+
+ </para>
+
+ TODO: currently doesn't work due to issue #2154:
+ http://scons.tigris.org/issues/show_bug.cgi?id=2154
+
+ <para>
+
+ If more than one build step creates or manipulates the same file,
+ it can cause unpleasant results if both build steps are run at the same time.
+ The shared file is declared as a side-effect of building the primary targets
+ and &SCons; will prevent the two build steps from running in parallel.
+
+ </para>
+
+ <para>
+
+ In this example, the <filename>SConscript</filename> uses
+ &SideEffect; to inform &SCons; about the additional output file.
+
+ </para>
+
+ <scons_example name="SideEffectSimple">
+   <file name="SConstruct" printme="1">
+    env = Environment()
+    f2 = env.Command('file2', 'log', Copy('$TARGET', '$SOURCE'))
+    f1 = env.Command('file1', [],
+        'echo >$TARGET data1; echo >log updated file1'))
+    env.SideEffect('log', env.Command('file1', [],
+        'echo >$TARGET data1; echo >log updated file1'))
+   </file>
+ </scons_example>
+
+ <para>
+
+ Even when run in parallel mode, &SCons; will run the two steps in order:
+
+ </para>
+
+ <scons_output example="SideEffectSimple">
+    <scons_output_command>scons -Q --jobs=2</scons_output_command>
+ </scons_output>
+
+ -->
+
+ <para>
+
+ Sometimes a program the you need to call
+ to build a target file
+ will also update another file,
+ such as a log file describing what the program
+ does while building the target.
+ For example, we the folowing configuration
+ would have &SCons; invoke a hypothetical
+ script named <application>build</application>
+ (in the local directory)
+ with command-line arguments that write
+ log information to a common
+ <filename>logfile.txt</filename> file:
+
+ </para>
+
+ <screen>
+ env = Environment()
+ env.Command('file1.out', 'file.in',
+             './build --log logfile.txt $SOURCE $TARGET')
+ env.Command('file2.out', 'file.in',
+             './build --log logfile.txt $SOURCE $TARGET')
+ <screen>
+
+ <para>
+
+ This can cause problems when running
+ the build in parallel if
+ &SCons; decides to update both targets
+ by running both program invocations at the same time.
+ The multiple program invocations
+ may interfere with each other
+ writing to the common log file,
+ leading at best to intermixed output in the log file,
+ and at worst to an actual failed build
+ (on a system like Windows, for example,
+ where only one process at a time can open the log file for writing).
+
+ </para>
+
+ <para>
+
+ We can make sure that &SCons; does not
+ run these <application>build</application>
+ commands at the same time
+ by using the &SideEffect; function
+ to specify that updating
+ the <filename>logfile.txt</filename> file
+ is a side effect of building the specified
+ <filename>file1</filename>
+ and
+ <filename>file2</filename>
+ target files:
+
+ </para>
+
+ <scons_example name="SideEffectShared">
+   <file name="SConstruct" printme="1">
+   env = Environment()
+   f1 = env.Command('file1.out', 'file1.in',
+                    './build --log logfile.txt $SOURCE $TARGET')
+   f2 = env.Command('file2.out', 'file2.in',
+                    './build --log logfile.txt $SOURCE $TARGET')
+   env.SideEffect('logfile.txt', f1 + f2)
+   </file>
+   <file name="file1.in">file1.in</file>
+   <file name="file2.in">file2.in</file>
+   <file name="build" chmod="0755">
+   cat
+   </file>
+ </scons_example>
+
+ <para>
+
+ </para>
+
+ <para>
+
+ This makes sure the the two
+ <application>./build</application> steps are run sequentially,
+ even withthe <filename>--jobs=2</filename> in the command line:
+
+ </para>
+
+ <scons_output example="SideEffectShared">
+    <scons_output_command>scons -Q --jobs=2</scons_output_command>
+ </scons_output>
+
+ <para>
+
+ The &SideEffect; function can be called multiple
+ times for the same side-effect file.
+ Additionally, the name used as a &SideEffect; does not
+ even need to actually exist as a file on disk.
+ &SCons; will still make sure
+ that the relevant targets
+ will be executed sequentially, not in parallel:
+
+ </para>
+
+ <scons_example name="SideEffectParallel">
+   <file name="SConstruct" printme="1">
+    env = Environment()
+    f1 = env.Command('file1.out', [], 'echo >$TARGET data1')
+    env.SideEffect('not_really_updated', f1)
+    f2 = env.Command('file2.out', [], 'echo >$TARGET data2')
+    env.SideEffect('not_really_updated', f2)
+   </file>
+ </scons_example>
+
+ <scons_output example="SideEffectParallel">
+    <scons_output_command>scons -Q --jobs=2</scons_output_command>
+ </scons_output>
+
+ <para>
+
+ Note that it might be tempting to
+ use &SideEffect; for additional target files
+ that a command produces.
+ For example, versions the Microsoft Visual C/C++ compiler
+ produce a <filename>foo.ilk</filename>
+ alongside compiling <filename>foo.obj</filename> file.
+ Specifying <filename>foo.ilk</filename> as a
+ side-effect of <filename>foo.obj</filename>
+ is <emphasis>not</emphasis> a recommended use of &SideEffect;,
+ because &SCons; handle side-effect files
+ slightly differently in its analysis of the dependency graph.
+ When a command produces multiple output files,
+ they should be specified as multiple targets of
+ the call to the relevant builder function,
+ and the &SideEffect; function itself should really only be used
+ when it's important to ensure that commands are not executed in parallel,
+ such as when a "peripheral" file (such as a log file)
+ may actually updated by more than one command invocation.
+
+ </para>