path: root/src/engine/SCons/Environment.xml

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<!-- Construction variables -->

<cvar name="BUILDERS">
<summary>
A dictionary mapping the names of the builders
available through this environment
to underlying Builder objects.
Builders named
Alias, CFile, CXXFile, DVI, Library, Object, PDF, PostScript, and Program
are available by default.
If you initialize this variable when an
Environment is created:

<example>
env = Environment(BUILDERS = {'NewBuilder' : foo})
</example>

the default Builders will no longer be available.
To use a new Builder object in addition to the default Builders,
add your new Builder object like this:

<example>
env = Environment()
env.Append(BUILDERS = {'NewBuilder' : foo})
</example>

or this:

<example>
env = Environment()
env['BUILDERS]['NewBuilder'] = foo
</example>
</summary>
</cvar>

<cvar name="Dir">
<summary>
A function that converts a string
into a Dir instance relative to the target being built.
</summary>
</cvar>

<cvar name="ENV">
<summary>
A dictionary of environment variables
to use when invoking commands. When
&cv-ENV; is used in a command all list
values will be joined using the path separator and any other non-string
values will simply be coerced to a string.
Note that, by default,
&scons;
does
<emphasis>not</emphasis>
propagate the environment in force when you
execute
&scons;
to the commands used to build target files.
This is so that builds will be guaranteed
repeatable regardless of the environment
variables set at the time
&scons;
is invoked.

If you want to propagate your
environment variables
to the commands executed
to build target files,
you must do so explicitly:

<example>
import os
env = Environment(ENV = os.environ)
</example>

Note that you can choose only to propagate
certain environment variables.
A common example is
the system
<envar>PATH</envar>
environment variable,
so that
&scons;
uses the same utilities
as the invoking shell (or other process):

<example>
import os
env = Environment(ENV = {'PATH' : os.environ['PATH']})
</example>
</summary>
</cvar>

<cvar name="File">
<summary>
A function that converts a string into a File instance relative to the
target being built.
</summary>
</cvar>

<cvar name="SCANNERS">
<summary>
A list of the available implicit dependency scanners.
New file scanners may be added by
appending to this list,
although the more flexible approach
is to associate scanners
with a specific Builder.
See the sections "Builder Objects"
and "Scanner Objects,"
below, for more information.
</summary>
</cvar>

<cvar name="CHANGED_SOURCES">
<summary>
A reserved variable name
that may not be set or used in a construction environment.
(See "Variable Substitution," below.)
</summary>
</cvar>

<cvar name="CHANGED_TARGETS">
<summary>
A reserved variable name
that may not be set or used in a construction environment.
(See "Variable Substitution," below.)
</summary>
</cvar>

<cvar name="SOURCE">
<summary>
A reserved variable name
that may not be set or used in a construction environment.
(See "Variable Substitution," below.)
</summary>
</cvar>

<cvar name="SOURCES">
<summary>
A reserved variable name
that may not be set or used in a construction environment.
(See "Variable Substitution," below.)
</summary>
</cvar>

<cvar name="TARGET">
<summary>
A reserved variable name
that may not be set or used in a construction environment.
(See "Variable Substitution," below.)
</summary>
</cvar>

<cvar name="TARGETS">
<summary>
A reserved variable name
that may not be set or used in a construction environment.
(See "Variable Substitution," below.)
</summary>
</cvar>

<cvar name="UNCHANGED_SOURCES">
<summary>
A reserved variable name
that may not be set or used in a construction environment.
(See "Variable Substitution," below.)
</summary>
</cvar>

<cvar name="UNCHANGED_TARGETS">
<summary>
A reserved variable name
that may not be set or used in a construction environment.
(See "Variable Substitution," below.)
</summary>
</cvar>

<cvar name="TOOLS">
<summary>
A list of the names of the Tool specifications
that are part of this construction environment.
</summary>
</cvar>

<!-- Functions /  Construction environment methods -->

<scons_function name="Action">
<arguments>
(action, [cmd/str/fun, [var, ...]] [option=value, ...])
</arguments>
<summary>
Creates an Action object for
the specified
<varname>action</varname>.
See the section "Action Objects,"
below, for a complete explanation of the arguments and behavior.

Note that the
<function>env.Action</function>()
form of the invocation will expand
construction variables in any argument strings,
including the
<varname>action</varname>
argument, at the time it is called
using the construction variables in the
<varname>env</varname>
construction environment through which
<function>env.Action</function>()
was called.
The
<function>Action</function>()
form delays all variable expansion
until the Action object is actually used.
</summary>
</scons_function>

<scons_function name="AddMethod">
<arguments signature="global">
(object, function, [name])
</arguments>
<arguments signature="env">
(function, [name])
</arguments>
<summary>
When called with the
<function>AddMethod</function>()
form,
adds the specified
<varname>function</varname>
to the specified
<varname>object</varname>
as the specified method
<varname>name</varname>.
When called with the
<function>env.AddMethod</function>()
form,
adds the specified
<varname>function</varname>
to the construction environment
<varname>env</varname>
as the specified method
<varname>name</varname>.
In both cases, if
<varname>name</varname>
is omitted or
<literal>None</literal>,
the name of the
specified
<varname>function</varname>
itself is used for the method name.

Examples:

<example>
# Note that the first argument to the function to
# be attached as a method must be the object through
# which the method will be called; the Python
# convention is to call it 'self'.
def my_method(self, arg):
    print "my_method() got", arg

# Use the global AddMethod() function to add a method
# to the Environment class.  This
AddMethod(Environment, my_method)
env = Environment()
env.my_method('arg')

# Add the function as a method, using the function
# name for the method call.
env = Environment()
env.AddMethod(my_method, 'other_method_name')
env.other_method_name('another arg')
</example>
</summary>
</scons_function>

<scons_function name="AddPostAction">
<arguments>
(target, action)
</arguments>
<summary>
Arranges for the specified
<varname>action</varname>
to be performed
after the specified
<varname>target</varname>
has been built.
The specified action(s) may be
an Action object, or anything that
can be converted into an Action object
(see below).

When multiple targets are supplied,
the action may be called multiple times,
once after each action that generates
one or more targets in the list.
</summary>
</scons_function>

<scons_function name="AddPreAction">
<arguments>
(target, action)
</arguments>
<summary>
Arranges for the specified
<varname>action</varname>
to be performed
before the specified
<varname>target</varname>
is built.
The specified action(s) may be
an Action object, or anything that
can be converted into an Action object
(see below).

When multiple targets are specified,
the action(s) may be called multiple times,
once before each action that generates
one or more targets in the list.

Note that if any of the targets are built in multiple steps,
the action will be invoked just
before the "final" action that specifically
generates the specified target(s).
For example, when building an executable program
from a specified source
<filename>.c</filename>
file via an intermediate object file:

<example>
foo = Program('foo.c')
AddPreAction(foo, 'pre_action')
</example>

The specified
<literal>pre_action</literal>
would be executed before
&scons;
calls the link command that actually
generates the executable program binary
<filename>foo</filename>,
not before compiling the
<filename>foo.c</filename>
file into an object file.
</summary>
</scons_function>

<scons_function name="Alias">
<arguments>
(alias, [targets, [action]])
</arguments>
<summary>
Creates one or more phony targets that
expand to one or more other targets.
An optional
<varname>action</varname>
(command)
or list of actions
can be specified that will be executed
whenever the any of the alias targets are out-of-date.
Returns the Node object representing the alias,
which exists outside of any file system.
This Node object, or the alias name,
may be used as a dependency of any other target,
including another alias.
&f-Alias;
can be called multiple times for the same
alias to add additional targets to the alias,
or additional actions to the list for this alias.

Examples:

<example>
Alias('install')
Alias('install', '/usr/bin')
Alias(['install', 'install-lib'], '/usr/local/lib')

env.Alias('install', ['/usr/local/bin', '/usr/local/lib'])
env.Alias('install', ['/usr/local/man'])

env.Alias('update', ['file1', 'file2'], "update_database $SOURCES")
</example>
</summary>
</scons_function>

<scons_function name="AlwaysBuild">
<arguments>
(target, ...)
</arguments>
<summary>
Marks each given
<varname>target</varname>
so that it is always assumed to be out of date,
and will always be rebuilt if needed.
Note, however, that
&f-AlwaysBuild;
does not add its target(s) to the default target list,
so the targets will only be built
if they are specified on the command line,
or are a dependent of a target specified on the command line--but
they will
<emphasis>always</emphasis>
be built if so specified.
Multiple targets can be passed in to a single call to
&f-AlwaysBuild;.
</summary>
</scons_function>

<scons_function name="Append">
<arguments signature="env">
(key=val, [...])
</arguments>
<summary>
Appends the specified keyword arguments
to the end of construction variables in the environment.
If the Environment does not have
the specified construction variable,
it is simply added to the environment.
If the values of the construction variable
and the keyword argument are the same type,
then the two values will be simply added together.
Otherwise, the construction variable
and the value of the keyword argument
are both coerced to lists,
and the lists are added together.
(See also the Prepend method, below.)

Example:

<example>
env.Append(CCFLAGS = ' -g', FOO = ['foo.yyy'])
</example>
</summary>
</scons_function>

<scons_function name="AppendENVPath">
<arguments signature="env">
(name, newpath, [envname, sep, delete_existing])
</arguments>
<summary>
This appends new path elements to the given path in the
specified external environment
(<literal>ENV</literal>
by default).
This will only add
any particular path once (leaving the last one it encounters and
ignoring the rest, to preserve path order),
and to help assure this,
will normalize all paths (using
<function>os.path.normpath</function>
and
<function>os.path.normcase</function>).
This can also handle the
case where the given old path variable is a list instead of a
string, in which case a list will be returned instead of a string.

If 
<varname>delete_existing</varname>
is 0, then adding a path that already exists
will not move it to the end; it will stay where it is in the list.

Example:

<example>
print 'before:',env['ENV']['INCLUDE']
include_path = '/foo/bar:/foo'
env.AppendENVPath('INCLUDE', include_path)
print 'after:',env['ENV']['INCLUDE']

yields:
before: /foo:/biz
after: /biz:/foo/bar:/foo
</example>
</summary>
</scons_function>

<scons_function name="AppendUnique">
<arguments signature="env">
(key=val, [...], delete_existing=0)
</arguments>
<summary>
Appends the specified keyword arguments
to the end of construction variables in the environment.
If the Environment does not have
the specified construction variable,
it is simply added to the environment.
If the construction variable being appended to is a list,
then any value(s) that already exist in the
construction variable will
<emphasis>not</emphasis>
be added again to the list.
However, if delete_existing is 1, 
existing matching values are removed first, so
existing values in the arg list move to the end of the list.

Example:

<example>
env.AppendUnique(CCFLAGS = '-g', FOO = ['foo.yyy'])
</example>
</summary>
</scons_function>

<scons_function name="BuildDir">
<arguments>
(build_dir, src_dir, [duplicate])
</arguments>
<summary>
Deprecated synonyms for
&f-VariantDir;
and
<function>env.VariantDir</function>().
The
<varname>build_dir</varname>
argument becomes the
<varname>variant_dir</varname>
argument of
&f-VariantDir;
or
<function>env.VariantDir</function>().
</summary>
</scons_function>

<scons_function name="Builder">
<arguments>
(action, [arguments])
</arguments>
<summary>
Creates a Builder object for
the specified
<varname>action</varname>.
See the section "Builder Objects,"
below, for a complete explanation of the arguments and behavior.

Note that the
<function>env.Builder</function>()
form of the invocation will expand
construction variables in any arguments strings,
including the
<varname>action</varname>
argument,
at the time it is called
using the construction variables in the
<varname>env</varname>
construction environment through which
<function>env.Builder</function>()
was called.
The
&f-Builder;
form delays all variable expansion
until after the Builder object is actually called.
</summary>
</scons_function>

<scons_function name="CacheDir">
<arguments>
(cache_dir)
</arguments>
<summary>
Specifies that
&scons;
will maintain a cache of derived files in
<varname>cache_dir</varname>.
The derived files in the cache will be shared
among all the builds using the same
&f-CacheDir;
call.
Specifying a
<varname>cache_dir</varname>
of
<literal>None</literal>
disables derived file caching.

Calling
<function>env.CacheDir</function>()
will only affect targets built
through the specified construction environment.
Calling
&f-CacheDir;
sets a global default
that will be used by all targets built
through construction environments
that do
<emphasis>not</emphasis>
have an
<function>env.CacheDir</function>()
specified.

When a
<function>CacheDir</function>()
is being used and
&scons;
finds a derived file that needs to be rebuilt,
it will first look in the cache to see if a
derived file has already been built
from identical input files and an identical build action
(as incorporated into the MD5 build signature).
If so,
&scons;
will retrieve the file from the cache.
If the derived file is not present in the cache,
&scons;
will rebuild it and
then place a copy of the built file in the cache
(identified by its MD5 build signature),
so that it may be retrieved by other
builds that need to build the same derived file
from identical inputs.

Use of a specified
&f-CacheDir;
may be disabled for any invocation
by using the
<option>--cache-disable</option>
option.

If the
<option>--cache-force</option>
option is used,
&scons;
will place a copy of
<emphasis>all</emphasis>
derived files in the cache,
even if they already existed
and were not built by this invocation.
This is useful to populate a cache
the first time
&f-CacheDir;
is added to a build,
or after using the
<option>--cache-disable</option>
option.

When using
&f-CacheDir;,
&scons;
will report,
"Retrieved `file' from cache,"
unless the
<option>--cache-show</option>
option is being used.
When the
<option>--cache-show</option>
option is used,
&scons;
will print the action that
<emphasis>would</emphasis>
have been used to build the file,
without any indication that
the file was actually retrieved from the cache.
This is useful to generate build logs
that are equivalent regardless of whether
a given derived file has been built in-place
or retrieved from the cache.

The
&f-link-NoCache;
method can be used to disable caching of specific files.  This can be
useful if inputs and/or outputs of some tool are impossible to
predict or prohibitively large.
</summary>
</scons_function>

<scons_function name="Clean">
<arguments>
(targets, files_or_dirs)
</arguments>
<summary>
This specifies a list of files or directories which should be removed
whenever the targets are specified with the
<option>-c</option>
command line option.
The specified targets may be a list
or an individual target.
Multiple calls to
&f-Clean;
are legal,
and create new targets or add files and directories to the
clean list for the specified targets.

Multiple files or directories should be specified
either as separate arguments to the
&f-Clean;
method, or as a list.
&f-Clean;
will also accept the return value of any of the construction environment
Builder methods.
Examples:

The related
&f-link-NoClean;
function overrides calling
&f-Clean;
for the same target,
and any targets passed to both functions will
<emphasis>not</emphasis>
be removed by the
<option>-c</option>
option.

Examples:

<example>
Clean('foo', ['bar', 'baz'])
Clean('dist', env.Program('hello', 'hello.c'))
Clean(['foo', 'bar'], 'something_else_to_clean')
</example>

In this example,
installing the project creates a subdirectory for the documentation.
This statement causes the subdirectory to be removed
if the project is deinstalled.
<example>
Clean(docdir, os.path.join(docdir, projectname))
</example>
</summary>
</scons_function>

<scons_function name="Clone">
<arguments signature="env">
([key=val, ...])
</arguments>
<summary>
Returns a separate copy of a construction environment.
If there are any keyword arguments specified,
they are added to the returned copy,
overwriting any existing values
for the keywords.

Example:

<example>
env2 = env.Clone()
env3 = env.Clone(CCFLAGS = '-g')
</example>

Additionally, a list of tools and a toolpath may be specified, as in
the Environment constructor:

<example>
def MyTool(env): env['FOO'] = 'bar'
env4 = env.Clone(tools = ['msvc', MyTool])
</example>

The
<varname>parse_flags</varname>
keyword argument is also recognized:

<example>
# create an environment for compiling programs that use wxWidgets
wx_env = env.Clone(parse_flags = '!wx-config --cflags --cxxflags')
</example>
</summary>
</scons_function>

<builder name="Command">
<summary>
The &b-Command; "Builder" is actually implemented
as a function that looks like a Builder,
but actually takes an additional argument of the action
from which the Builder should be made.
See the &f-link-Command; function description
for the calling syntax and details.
</summary>
</builder>

<scons_function name="Command">
<arguments>
(target, source, action, [key=val, ...])
</arguments>
<summary>
Executes a specific action
(or list of actions)
to build a target file or files.
This is more convenient
than defining a separate Builder object
for a single special-case build.

As a special case, the
<varname>source_scanner</varname>
keyword argument can
be used to specify
a Scanner object
that will be used to scan the sources.
(The global
<literal>DirScanner</literal>
object can be used
if any of the sources will be directories
that must be scanned on-disk for
changes to files that aren't
already specified in other Builder of function calls.)

Any other keyword arguments specified override any
same-named existing construction variables.

An action can be an external command,
specified as a string,
or a callable Python object;
see "Action Objects," below,
for more complete information.
Also note that a string specifying an external command
may be preceded by an
<literal>@</literal>
(at-sign)
to suppress printing the command in question,
or by a
<literal>-</literal>
(hyphen)
to ignore the exit status of the external command.

Examples:

<example>
env.Command('foo.out', 'foo.in',
            "$FOO_BUILD &lt; $SOURCES &gt; $TARGET")

env.Command('bar.out', 'bar.in',
            ["rm -f $TARGET",
             "$BAR_BUILD &lt; $SOURCES &gt; $TARGET"],
            ENV = {'PATH' : '/usr/local/bin/'})

def rename(env, target, source):
    import os
    os.rename('.tmp', str(target[0]))

env.Command('baz.out', 'baz.in',
            ["$BAZ_BUILD &lt; $SOURCES &gt; .tmp",
	     rename ])
</example>

Note that the
&f-Command;
function will usually assume, by default,
that the specified targets and/or sources are Files,
if no other part of the configuration
identifies what type of entry it is.
If necessary, you can explicitly specify
that targets or source nodes should
be treated as directoriese
by using the
&f-link-Dir;
or
<function>env.Dir</function>()
functions.

Examples:

<example>
env.Command('ddd.list', Dir('ddd'), 'ls -l $SOURCE > $TARGET')

env['DISTDIR'] = 'destination/directory'
env.Command(env.Dir('$DISTDIR')), None, make_distdir)
</example>

(Also note that SCons will usually
automatically create any directory necessary to hold a target file,
so you normally don't need to create directories by hand.)
</summary>
</scons_function>

<scons_function name="Configure">
<arguments signature="global">
(env, [custom_tests, conf_dir, log_file, config_h])
</arguments>
<arguments signature="env">
([custom_tests, conf_dir, log_file, config_h])
</arguments>
<summary>
Creates a Configure object for integrated
functionality similar to GNU autoconf.
See the section "Configure Contexts,"
below, for a complete explanation of the arguments and behavior.
</summary>
</scons_function>

<scons_function name="Copy">
<arguments signature="env">
([key=val, ...])
</arguments>
<summary>
A now-deprecated synonym for
<function>env.Clone</function>().
</summary>
</scons_function>

<scons_function name="Decider">
<arguments>
(function)
</arguments>
<summary>
Specifies that all up-to-date decisions for
targets built through this construction environment
will be handled by the specified
<varname>function</varname>.
The
<varname>function</varname>
can be one of the following strings
that specify the type of decision function
to be performed:

<variablelist>
<varlistentry>
<term><literal>timestamp-newer</literal></term>
<listitem>
<para>
Specifies that a target shall be considered out of date and rebuilt
if the dependency's timestamp is newer than the target file's timestamp.
This is the behavior of the classic Make utility,
and
<literal>make</literal>
can be used a synonym for
<literal>timestamp-newer</literal>.
</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry>
<term><literal>timestamp-match</literal></term>
<listitem>
<para>
Specifies that a target shall be considered out of date and rebuilt
if the dependency's timestamp is different than the
timestamp recorded the last time the target was built.
This provides behavior very similar to the classic Make utility
(in particular, files are not opened up so that their
contents can be checksummed)
except that the target will also be rebuilt if a
dependency file has been restored to a version with an
<emphasis>earlier</emphasis>
timestamp, such as can happen when restoring files from backup archives.
</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry>
<term><literal>MD5</literal></term>
<listitem>
<para>
Specifies that a target shall be considered out of date and rebuilt
if the dependency's content has changed sine the last time
the target was built,
as determined be performing an MD5 checksum
on the dependency's contents
and comparing it to the checksum recorded the
last time the target was built.
<literal>content</literal>
can be used as a synonym for
<literal>MD5</literal>.
</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry>
<term><literal>MD5-timestamp</literal></term>
<listitem>
<para>
Specifies that a target shall be considered out of date and rebuilt
if the dependency's content has changed sine the last time
the target was built,
except that dependencies with a timestamp that matches
the last time the target was rebuilt will be
assumed to be up-to-date and
<emphasis>not</emphasis>
rebuilt.
This provides behavior very similar
to the
<literal>MD5</literal>
behavior of always checksumming file contents,
with an optimization of not checking
the contents of files whose timestamps haven't changed.
The drawback is that SCons will
<emphasis>not</emphasis>
detect if a file's content has changed
but its timestamp is the same,
as might happen in an automated script
that runs a build,
updates a file,
and runs the build again,
all within a single second.
</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
</variablelist>

Examples:

<example>
# Use exact timestamp matches by default.
Decider('timestamp-match')

# Use MD5 content signatures for any targets built
# with the attached construction environment.
env.Decider('content')
</example>

In addition to the above already-available functions,
the
<varname>function</varname>
argument may be an actual Python function
that takes the following three arguments:

<variablelist>
<varlistentry>
<term><parameter>dependency</parameter></term>
<listitem>
<para>
The Node (file) which
should cause the
<varname>target</varname>
to be rebuilt
if it has "changed" since the last tme
<varname>target</varname>
was built.
</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry>
<term><parameter>target</parameter></term>
<listitem>
<para>
The Node (file) being built.
In the normal case,
this is what should get rebuilt
if the
<varname>dependency</varname>
has "changed."
</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry>
<term><parameter>prev_ni</parameter></term>
<listitem>
<para>
Stored information about the state of the
<varname>dependency</varname>
the last time the
<varname>target</varname>
was built.
This can be consulted to match various
file characteristics
such as the timestamp,
size, or content signature.
</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
</variablelist>

The
<varname>function</varname>
should return a
<literal>True</literal>
(non-zero)
value if the
<varname>dependency</varname>
has "changed" since the last time
the
<varname>target</varname>
was built
(indicating that the target
<emphasis>should</emphasis>
be rebuilt),
and
<literal>False</literal>
(zero)
otherwise
(indicating that the target should
<emphasis>not</emphasis>
be rebuilt).
Note that the decision can be made
using whatever criteria are appopriate.
Ignoring some or all of the function arguments
is perfectly normal.

Example:

<example>
def my_decider(dependency, target, prev_ni):
    return not os.path.exists(str(target))

env.Decider(my_decider)
</example>
</summary>
</scons_function>

<scons_function name="Depends">
<arguments>
(target, dependency)
</arguments>
<summary>
Specifies an explicit dependency;
the
<varname>target</varname>
will be rebuilt
whenever the
<varname>dependency</varname>
has changed.
Both the specified
<varname>target</varname>
and
<varname>dependency</varname>
can be a string
(usually the path name of a file or directory)
or Node objects,
or a list of strings or Node objects
(such as returned by a Builder call).
This should only be necessary
for cases where the dependency
is not caught by a Scanner
for the file.

Example:

<example>
env.Depends('foo', 'other-input-file-for-foo')

mylib = env.Library('mylib.c')
installed_lib = env.Install('lib', mylib)
bar = env.Program('bar.c')

# Arrange for the library to be copied into the installation
# directory before trying to build the "bar" program.
# (Note that this is for example only.  A "real" library
# dependency would normally be configured through the $LIBS
# and $LIBPATH variables, not using an env.Depends() call.)

env.Depends(bar, installed_lib)
</example>
</summary>
</scons_function>

<scons_function name="Dictionary">
<arguments signature="env">
([vars])
</arguments>
<summary>
Returns a dictionary object
containing copies of all of the
construction variables in the environment.
If there are any variable names specified,
only the specified construction
variables are returned in the dictionary.

Example:

<example>
dict = env.Dictionary()
cc_dict = env.Dictionary('CC', 'CCFLAGS', 'CCCOM')
</example>
</summary>
</scons_function>

<scons_function name="Dir">
<arguments>
(name, [directory])
</arguments>
<summary>
This returns a Directory Node,
an object that represents the specified directory
<varname>name</varname>.
<varname>name</varname>
can be a relative or absolute path.
<varname>directory</varname>
is an optional directory that will be used as the parent directory.
If no
<varname>directory</varname>
is specified, the current script's directory is used as the parent.

If
<varname>name</varname>
is a list, SCons returns a list of Dir nodes.
Construction variables are expanded in
<varname>name</varname>.

Directory Nodes can be used anywhere you
would supply a string as a directory name
to a Builder method or function.
Directory Nodes have attributes and methods
that are useful in many situations;
see "File and Directory Nodes," below.
</summary>
</scons_function>

<scons_function name="Dump">
<arguments signature="env">
([key])
</arguments>
<summary>
Returns a pretty printable representation of the environment.
<varname>key</varname>,
if not
<literal>None</literal>,
should be a string containing the name of the variable of interest.

This SConstruct:

<example>
env=Environment()
print env.Dump('CCCOM')
</example>

will print:

<example>
'$CC -c -o $TARGET $CCFLAGS $CPPFLAGS $_CPPDEFFLAGS $_CPPINCFLAGS $SOURCES'
</example>

While this SConstruct:

<example>
env=Environment()
print env.Dump()
</example>

will print:
<example>
{ 'AR': 'ar',
  'ARCOM': '$AR $ARFLAGS $TARGET $SOURCES\n$RANLIB $RANLIBFLAGS $TARGET',
  'ARFLAGS': ['r'],
  'AS': 'as',
  'ASCOM': '$AS $ASFLAGS -o $TARGET $SOURCES',
  'ASFLAGS': [],
  ...
</example>
</summary>
</scons_function>

<scons_function name="Environment">
<arguments>
([key=value, ...])
</arguments>
<summary>
Return a new construction environment
initialized with the specified
<varname>key</varname><literal>=</literal><varname>value</varname>
pairs.
</summary>
</scons_function>

<scons_function name="Execute">
<arguments>
(action, [strfunction, varlist])
</arguments>
<summary>
Executes an Action object.
The specified
<varname>action</varname>
may be an Action object
(see the section "Action Objects,"
below, for a complete explanation of the arguments and behavior),
or it may be a command-line string,
list of commands,
or executable Python function,
each of which will be converted
into an Action object
and then executed.
The exit value of the command
or return value of the Python function
will be returned.

Note that
&scons;
will print an error message if the executed
<varname>action</varname>
fails--that is,
exits with or returns a non-zero value.
&scons;
will
<emphasis>not</emphasis>,
however,
automatically terminate the build
if the specified
<varname>action</varname>
fails.
If you want the build to stop in response to a failed
&f-Execute;
call,
you must explicitly check for a non-zero return value:

<example>
Execute(Copy('file.out', 'file.in'))

if Execute("mkdir sub/dir/ectory"):
    # The mkdir failed, don't try to build.
    Exit(1)
</example>
</summary>
</scons_function>

<scons_function name="File">
<arguments>
(name, [directory])
</arguments>
<summary>
This returns a
File Node,
an object that represents the specified file
<varname>name</varname>.
<varname>name</varname>
can be a relative or absolute path.
<varname>directory</varname>
is an optional directory that will be used as the parent directory.

If
<varname>name</varname>
is a list, SCons returns a list of File nodes.
Construction variables are expanded in
<varname>name</varname>.

File Nodes can be used anywhere you
would supply a string as a file name
to a Builder method or function.
File Nodes have attributes and methods
that are useful in many situations;
see "File and Directory Nodes," below.
</summary>
</scons_function>

<scons_function name="FindFile">
<arguments>
(file, dirs)
</arguments>
<summary>
Search for
<varname>file</varname>
in the path specified by
<varname>dirs</varname>.
<varname>dirs</varname>
may be a list of directory names or a single directory name.
In addition to searching for files that exist in the filesystem,
this function also searches for derived files
that have not yet been built.

Example:

<example>
foo = env.FindFile('foo', ['dir1', 'dir2'])
</example>
</summary>
</scons_function>

<scons_function name="FindInstalledFiles">
<arguments>
()
</arguments>
<summary>
Returns the list of targets set up by the
&b-link-Install;
or
&b-link-InstallAs;
builders.

This function serves as a convenient method to select the contents of
a binary package.

Example:

<example>
Install( '/bin', [ 'executable_a', 'executable_b' ] )

# will return the file node list
# [ '/bin/executable_a', '/bin/executable_b' ]
FindInstalledFiles()

Install( '/lib', [ 'some_library' ] )

# will return the file node list
# [ '/bin/executable_a', '/bin/executable_b', '/lib/some_library' ]
FindInstalledFiles()
</example>
</summary>
</scons_function>

<scons_function name="FindSourceFiles">
<arguments>
(node='"."')
</arguments>
<summary>
Returns the list of nodes which serve as the source of the built files.
It does so by inspecting the dependency tree starting at the optional
argument
<varname>node</varname>
which defaults to the '"."'-node. It will then return all leaves of
<varname>node</varname>.
These are all children which have no further children.

This function is a convenient method to select the contents of a Source
Package.

Example:

<example>
Program( 'src/main_a.c' )
Program( 'src/main_b.c' )
Program( 'main_c.c' )

# returns ['main_c.c', 'src/main_a.c', 'SConstruct', 'src/main_b.c']
FindSourceFiles()

# returns ['src/main_b.c', 'src/main_a.c' ]
FindSourceFiles( 'src' )
</example>

As you can see build support files (SConstruct in the above example)
will also be returned by this function.
</summary>
</scons_function>

<scons_function name="Flatten">
<arguments>
(sequence)
</arguments>
<summary>
Takes a sequence (that is, a Python list or tuple)
that may contain nested sequences
and returns a flattened list containing
all of the individual elements in any sequence.
This can be helpful for collecting
the lists returned by calls to Builders;
other Builders will automatically
flatten lists specified as input,
but direct Python manipulation of
these lists does not.

Examples:

<example>
foo = Object('foo.c')
bar = Object('bar.c')

# Because `foo' and `bar' are lists returned by the Object() Builder,
# `objects' will be a list containing nested lists:
objects = ['f1.o', foo, 'f2.o', bar, 'f3.o']

# Passing such a list to another Builder is all right because
# the Builder will flatten the list automatically:
Program(source = objects)

# If you need to manipulate the list directly using Python, you need to
# call Flatten() yourself, or otherwise handle nested lists:
for object in Flatten(objects):
    print str(object)
</example>
</summary>
</scons_function>

<scons_function name="GetBuildPath">
<arguments>
(file, [...])
</arguments>
<summary>
Returns the
&scons;
path name (or names) for the specified
<varname>file</varname>
(or files).
The specified
<varname>file</varname>
or files
may be
&scons;
Nodes or strings representing path names.
</summary>
</scons_function>

<scons_function name="Glob">
<arguments>
(pattern, [ondisk, source, strings])
</arguments>
<summary>
Returns Nodes (or strings) that match the specified
<varname>pattern</varname>,
relative to the directory of the current
&SConscript;
file.
The
<function>env.Glob</function>()
form performs string substition on
<varname>pattern</varname>
and returns whatever matches
the resulting expanded pattern.

The specified
<varname>pattern</varname>
uses Unix shell style metacharacters for matching:

<example>
  *       matches everything
  ?       matches any single character
  [seq]   matches any character in seq
  [!seq]  matches any char not in seq
</example>

If the first character of a filename is a dot,
it must be matched explicitly.
Character matches do
<emphasis>not</emphasis>
span directory separators.

The
&f-Glob;
knows about
repositories
(see the
&f-link-Repository;
function)
and source directories
(see the
&f-link-VariantDir;
function)
and
returns a Node (or string, if so configured)
in the local (SConscript) directory
if matching Node is found
anywhere in a corresponding
repository or source directory.

The
<varname>ondisk</varname>
argument may be set to
<literal>False</literal>
(or any other non-true value)
to disable the search for matches on disk,
thereby only returning matches among
already-configured File or Dir Nodes.
The default behavior is to
return corresponding Nodes
for any on-disk matches found.

The
<varname>source</varname>
argument may be set to
<literal>True</literal>
(or any equivalent value)
to specify that,
when the local directory is a
&f-VariantDir;,
the returned Nodes should be from the
corresponding source directory,
not the local directory.

The
<varname>strings</varname>
argument may be set to
<literal>True</literal>
(or any equivalent value)
to have the
&f-Glob;
function return strings, not Nodes,
that represent the matched files or directories.
The returned strings will be relative to
the local (SConscript) directory.
(Note that This may make it easier to perform
arbitrary manipulation of file names,
but if the returned strings are
passed to a different
&SConscript;
file,
any Node translation will be relative
to the other
&SConscript;
directory,
not the original
&SConscript;
directory.)

Examples:

<example>
Program('foo', Glob('*.c'))
Zip('/tmp/everything', Glob('.??*') + Glob('*'))
</example>
</summary>
</scons_function>

<!--
<scons_function name="GlobalBuilders">
<arguments signature="global">
(flag)
</arguments>
<summary>
When
<varname>flag</varname>
is non-zero,
adds the names of the default builders
(Program, Library, etc.)
to the global name space
so they can be called without an explicit construction environment.
(This is the default.)
When
<varname>flag</varname>
is zero,
the names of the default builders are removed
from the global name space
so that an explicit construction environment is required
to call all builders.
</summary>
</scons_function>
-->

<scons_function name="Ignore">
<arguments>
(target, dependency)
</arguments>
<summary>
The specified dependency file(s)
will be ignored when deciding if
the target file(s) need to be rebuilt.

You can also use
&f-Ignore;
to remove a target from the default build.
In order to do this you must specify the directory the target will
be built in as the target, and the file you want to skip building
as the dependency.

Note that this will only remove the dependencies listed from 
the files built by default.  It will still be built if that 
dependency is needed by another object being built. 
See the third and forth examples below.

Examples:

<example>
env.Ignore('foo', 'foo.c')
env.Ignore('bar', ['bar1.h', 'bar2.h'])
env.Ignore('.','foobar.obj')
env.Ignore('bar','bar/foobar.obj')
</example>
</summary>
</scons_function>

<scons_function name="Literal">
<arguments>
(string)
</arguments>
<summary>
The specified
<varname>string</varname>
will be preserved as-is
and not have construction variables expanded.
</summary>
</scons_function>

<scons_function name="Local">
<arguments>
(targets)
</arguments>
<summary>
The specified
<varname>targets</varname>
will have copies made in the local tree,
even if an already up-to-date copy
exists in a repository.
Returns a list of the target Node or Nodes.
</summary>
</scons_function>

<!--
<scons_function name="MergeShellPaths">
<arguments signature="env">
( arg ", [" prepend ])
</arguments>
<summary>
Merges the elements of the specified
<varname>arg</varname>,
which must be a dictionary, to the construction
environment's copy of the shell environment
in env['ENV'].
(This is the environment which is passed
to subshells spawned by SCons.)
Note that
<varname>arg</varname>
must be a single value,
so multiple strings must
be passed in as a list,
not as separate arguments to
&f-MergeShellPaths;.

New values are prepended to the environment variable by default,
unless prepend=0 is specified.  
Duplicate values are always eliminated, 
since this function calls
&f-link-AppendENVPath;
or
&f-link-PrependENVPath;
depending on the
<varname>prepend</varname>
argument.  See those functions for more details.

Examples:

<example>
# Prepend a path to the shell PATH.
env.MergeShellPaths({'PATH':'/usr/local/bin'} )
# Append two dirs to the shell INCLUDE.
env.MergeShellPaths({'INCLUDE':['c:/inc1', 'c:/inc2']}, prepend=0 )
</example>
</summary>
</scons_function>
-->

<scons_function name="MergeFlags">
<arguments signature="env">
(arg, [unique])
</arguments>
<summary>
Merges the specified
<varname>arg</varname>
values to the construction environment's construction variables.
If the
<varname>arg</varname>
argument is not a dictionary,
it is converted to one by calling
&f-link-env-ParseFlags;
on the argument
before the values are merged.
Note that
<varname>arg</varname>
must be a single value,
so multiple strings must
be passed in as a list,
not as separate arguments to
&f-env-MergeFlags;.

By default,
duplicate values are eliminated;
you can, however, specify
<literal>unique=0</literal>
to allow duplicate
values to be added.
When eliminating duplicate values,
any construction variables that end with
the string
<literal>PATH</literal>
keep the left-most unique value.
All other construction variables keep
the right-most unique value.

Examples:

<example>
# Add an optimization flag to $CCFLAGS.
env.MergeFlags('-O3')

# Combine the flags returned from running pkg-config with an optimization
# flag and merge the result into the construction variables.
env.MergeFlags(['!pkg-config gtk+-2.0 --cflags', '-O3'])

# Combine an optimization flag with the flags returned from running pkg-config
# twice and merge the result into the construction variables.
env.MergeFlags(['-O3',
               '!pkg-config gtk+-2.0 --cflags --libs',
               '!pkg-config libpng12 --cflags --libs'])
</example>
</summary>
</scons_function>

<scons_function name="NoCache">
<arguments>
(target, ...)
</arguments>
<summary>
Specifies a list of files which should
<emphasis>not</emphasis>
be cached whenever the
&f-link-CacheDir;
method has been activated.
The specified targets may be a list
or an individual target.

Multiple files should be specified
either as separate arguments to the
&f-NoCache;
method, or as a list.
&f-NoCache;
will also accept the return value of any of the construction environment
Builder methods.

Calling
&f-NoCache;
on directories and other non-File Node types has no effect because
only File Nodes are cached.

Examples:

<example>
NoCache('foo.elf')
NoCache(env.Program('hello', 'hello.c'))
</example>
</summary>
</scons_function>

<scons_function name="NoClean">
<arguments>
(target, ...)
</arguments>
<summary>
Specifies a list of files or directories which should
<emphasis>not</emphasis>
be removed whenever the targets (or their dependencies)
are specified with the
<option>-c</option>
command line option.
The specified targets may be a list
or an individual target.
Multiple calls to
&f-NoClean;
are legal,
and prevent each specified target
from being removed by calls to the
<option>-c</option>
option.

Multiple files or directories should be specified
either as separate arguments to the
&f-NoClean;
method, or as a list.
&f-NoClean;
will also accept the return value of any of the construction environment
Builder methods.

Calling
&f-NoClean;
for a target overrides calling
&f-link-Clean;
for the same target,
and any targets passed to both functions will
<emphasis>not</emphasis>
be removed by the
<option>-c</option>
option.

Examples:

<example>
NoClean('foo.elf')
NoClean(env.Program('hello', 'hello.c'))
</example>
</summary>
</scons_function>

<scons_function name="ParseConfig">
<arguments signature="env">
(command, [function, unique])
</arguments>
<summary>
Calls the specified
<varname>function</varname>
to modify the environment as specified by the output of
<varname>command</varname>.
The default
<varname>function</varname>
is
&f-link-env-MergeFlags;,
which expects the output of a typical
<application>*-config</application>
command
(for example,
<application>gtk-config</application>)
and adds the options
to the appropriate construction variables.
By default,
duplicate values are not
added to any construction variables;
you can specify
<literal>unique=0</literal>
to allow duplicate
values to be added.

Interpreted options
and the construction variables they affect
are as specified for the
&f-link-env-ParseFlags;
method (which this method calls).
See that method's description, below,
for a table of options and construction variables.
</summary>
</scons_function>

<scons_function name="ParseDepends">
<arguments>
(filename, [must_exist, only_one])
</arguments>
<summary>
Parses the contents of the specified
<varname>filename</varname>
as a list of dependencies in the style of
&Make;
or
<application>mkdep</application>,
and explicitly establishes all of the listed dependencies.

By default,
it is not an error
if the specified
<varname>filename</varname>
does not exist.
The optional
<varname>must_exist</varname>
argument may be set to a non-zero
value to have
scons
throw an exception and
generate an error if the file does not exist,
or is otherwise inaccessible.

The optional
<varname>only_one</varname>
argument may be set to a non-zero
value to have
scons
thrown an exception and
generate an error
if the file contains dependency
information for more than one target.
This can provide a small sanity check
for files intended to be generated
by, for example, the
<literal>gcc -M</literal>
flag,
which should typically only
write dependency information for
one output file into a corresponding
<filename>.d</filename>
file.

The
<varname>filename</varname>
and all of the files listed therein
will be interpreted relative to
the directory of the
&SConscript;
file which calls the
&f-ParseDepends;
function.
</summary>
</scons_function>

<scons_function name="ParseFlags">
<arguments signature="env">
(flags, ...)
</arguments>
<summary>
Parses one or more strings containing
typical command-line flags for GCC tool chains
and returns a dictionary with the flag values
separated into the appropriate SCons construction variables.
This is intended as a companion to the
&f-link-env-MergeFlags;
method, but allows for the values in the returned dictionary
to be modified, if necessary,
before merging them into the construction environment.
(Note that
&f-env-MergeFlags;
will call this method if its argument is not a dictionary,
so it is usually not necessary to call
&f-link-env-ParseFlags;
directly unless you want to manipulate the values.)

If the first character in any string is
an exclamation mark (!),
the rest of the string is executed as a command,
and the output from the command is
parsed as GCC tool chain command-line flags
and added to the resulting dictionary.

Flag values are translated accordig to the prefix found,
and added to the following construction variables:

<example>
-arch               CCFLAGS, LINKFLAGS
-D                  CPPDEFINES
-framework          FRAMEWORKS
-frameworkdir=      FRAMEWORKPATH
-include            CCFLAGS
-isysroot           CCFLAGS, LINKFLAGS
-I                  CPPPATH
-l                  LIBS
-L                  LIBPATH
-mno-cygwin         CCFLAGS, LINKFLAGS
-mwindows           LINKFLAGS
-pthread            CCFLAGS, LINKFLAGS
-std=               CFLAGS
-Wa,                ASFLAGS, CCFLAGS
-Wl,-rpath=         RPATH
-Wl,-R,             RPATH
-Wl,-R              RPATH
-Wl,                LINKFLAGS
-Wp,                CPPFLAGS
-                   CCFLAGS
+                   CCFLAGS, LINKFLAGS
</example>

Any other strings not associated with options
are assumed to be the names of libraries
and added to the
&cv-LIBS;
construction variable.

Examples (all of which produce the same result):

<example>
dict = env.ParseFlags('-O2 -Dfoo -Dbar=1')
dict = env.ParseFlags('-O2', '-Dfoo', '-Dbar=1')
dict = env.ParseFlags(['-O2', '-Dfoo -Dbar=1'])
dict = env.ParseFlags('-O2', '!echo -Dfoo -Dbar=1')
</example>
</summary>
</scons_function>

<scons_function name="Platform">
<arguments signature="global">
(string)
</arguments>
<summary>
The
&f-Platform;
form returns a callable object
that can be used to initialize
a construction environment using the
platform keyword of the
&f-Environment;
function.

Example:

<example>
env = Environment(platform = Platform('win32'))
</example>

The
&f-env-Platform;
form applies the callable object for the specified platform
<varname>string</varname>
to the environment through which the method was called.

<example>
env.Platform('posix')
</example>

Note that the
<literal>win32</literal>
platform adds the
<literal>SystemDrive</literal>
and
<literal>SystemRoot</literal>
variables from the user's external environment
to the construction environment's
&cv-link-ENV;
dictionary.
This is so that any executed commands
that use sockets to connect with other systems
(such as fetching source files from
external CVS repository specifications like
<literal>:pserver:anonymous@cvs.sourceforge.net:/cvsroot/scons</literal>)
will work on Windows systems.
</summary>
</scons_function>

<scons_function name="Prepend">
<arguments signature="env">
(key=val, [...])
</arguments>
<summary>
Appends the specified keyword arguments
to the beginning of construction variables in the environment.
If the Environment does not have
the specified construction variable,
it is simply added to the environment.
If the values of the construction variable
and the keyword argument are the same type,
then the two values will be simply added together.
Otherwise, the construction variable
and the value of the keyword argument
are both coerced to lists,
and the lists are added together.
(See also the Append method, above.)

Example:

<example>
env.Prepend(CCFLAGS = '-g ', FOO = ['foo.yyy'])
</example>
</summary>
</scons_function>

<scons_function name="PrependENVPath">
<arguments signature="env">
(name, newpath, [envname, sep, delete_existing])
</arguments>
<summary>
This appends new path elements to the given path in the
specified external environment
(&cv-ENV;
by default).
This will only add
any particular path once (leaving the first one it encounters and
ignoring the rest, to preserve path order),
and to help assure this,
will normalize all paths (using
<literal>os.path.normpath</literal>
and
<literal>os.path.normcase</literal>).
This can also handle the
case where the given old path variable is a list instead of a
string, in which case a list will be returned instead of a string.

If
<varname>delete_existing</varname>
is 0, then adding a path that already exists
will not move it to the beginning;
it will stay where it is in the list.

Example:

<example>
print 'before:',env['ENV']['INCLUDE']
include_path = '/foo/bar:/foo'
env.PrependENVPath('INCLUDE', include_path)
print 'after:',env['ENV']['INCLUDE']
</example>

The above example will print:

<example>
before: /biz:/foo
after: /foo/bar:/foo:/biz
</example>
</summary>
</scons_function>

<scons_function name="PrependUnique">
<arguments signature="env">
(key=val, delete_existing=0, [...])
</arguments>
<summary>
Appends the specified keyword arguments
to the beginning of construction variables in the environment.
If the Environment does not have
the specified construction variable,
it is simply added to the environment.
If the construction variable being appended to is a list,
then any value(s) that already exist in the
construction variable will
<emphasis>not</emphasis>
be added again to the list.
However, if delete_existing is 1, 
existing matching values are removed first, so
existing values in the arg list move to the front of the list.

Example:

<example>
env.PrependUnique(CCFLAGS = '-g', FOO = ['foo.yyy'])
</example>
</summary>
</scons_function>

<scons_function name="Replace">
<arguments signature="env">
(key=val, [...])
</arguments>
<summary>
Replaces construction variables in the Environment
with the specified keyword arguments.

Example:

<example>
env.Replace(CCFLAGS = '-g', FOO = 'foo.xxx')
</example>
</summary>
</scons_function>

<scons_function name="Repository">
<arguments>
(directory)
</arguments>
<summary>
Specifies that
<varname>directory</varname>
is a repository to be searched for files.
Multiple calls to
&f-Repository;
are legal,
and each one adds to the list of
repositories that will be searched.

To
&scons;,
a repository is a copy of the source tree,
from the top-level directory on down,
which may contain
both source files and derived files
that can be used to build targets in
the local source tree.
The canonical example would be an
official source tree maintained by an integrator.
If the repository contains derived files,
then the derived files should have been built using
&scons;,
so that the repository contains the necessary
signature information to allow
&scons;
to figure out when it is appropriate to
use the repository copy of a derived file,
instead of building one locally.

Note that if an up-to-date derived file
already exists in a repository,
&scons;
will
<emphasis>not</emphasis>
make a copy in the local directory tree.
In order to guarantee that a local copy
will be made,
use the
&f-link-Local;
method.
</summary>
</scons_function>

<scons_function name="Requires">
<arguments>
(target, prerequisite)
</arguments>
<summary>
Specifies an order-only relationship
between the specified target file(s)
and the specified prerequisite file(s).
The prerequisite file(s)
will be (re)built, if necessary,
<emphasis>before</emphasis>
the target file(s),
but the target file(s) do not actually
depend on the prerequisites
and will not be rebuilt simply because
the prerequisite file(s) change.

Example:

<example>
env.Requires('foo', 'file-that-must-be-built-before-foo')
</example>
</summary>
</scons_function>

<scons_function name="Scanner">
<arguments>
(function, [argument, keys, path_function, node_class, node_factory, scan_check, recursive])
</arguments>
<summary>
Creates a Scanner object for
the specified
<varname>function</varname>.
See the section "Scanner Objects,"
below, for a complete explanation of the arguments and behavior.
</summary>
</scons_function>

<scons_function name="SConscriptChdir">
<arguments>
(value)
</arguments>
<summary>
By default,
&scons;
changes its working directory
to the directory in which each
subsidiary SConscript file lives.
This behavior may be disabled
by specifying either:

<example>
SConscriptChdir(0)
env.SConscriptChdir(0)
</example>

in which case
&scons;
will stay in the top-level directory
while reading all SConscript files.
(This may be necessary when building from repositories,
when all the directories in which SConscript files may be found
don't necessarily exist locally.)
You may enable and disable
this ability by calling
SConscriptChdir()
multiple times.

Example:

<example>
env = Environment()
SConscriptChdir(0)
SConscript('foo/SConscript')	# will not chdir to foo
env.SConscriptChdir(1)
SConscript('bar/SConscript')	# will chdir to bar
</example>
</summary>
</scons_function>

<scons_function name="SConsignFile">
<arguments>
([file, dbm_module])
</arguments>
<summary>
This tells
&scons;
to store all file signatures
in the specified database
<varname>file</varname>.
If the
<varname>file</varname>
name is omitted,
<filename>.sconsign</filename>
is used by default.
(The actual file name(s) stored on disk
may have an appropriated suffix appended
by the
<varname> dbm_module</varname>.)
If
<varname>file</varname>
is not an absolute path name,
the file is placed in the same directory as the top-level
&SConstruct;
file.

If
<varname>file</varname>
is
<literal>None</literal>,
then
&scons;
will store file signatures
in a separate
<filename>.sconsign</filename>
file in each directory,
not in one global database file.
(This was the default behavior
prior to SCons 0.96.91 and 0.97.)

The optional
<varname>dbm_module</varname>
argument can be used to specify
which Python database module
The default is to use a custom
<filename>SCons.dblite</filename>
module that uses pickled
Python data structures,
and which works on all Python versions.

Examples:

<example>
# Explicitly stores signatures in ".sconsign.dblite"
# in the top-level SConstruct directory (the
# default behavior).
SConsignFile()

# Stores signatures in the file "etc/scons-signatures"
# relative to the top-level SConstruct directory.
SConsignFile("etc/scons-signatures")

# Stores signatures in the specified absolute file name.
SConsignFile("/home/me/SCons/signatures")

# Stores signatures in a separate .sconsign file
# in each directory.
SConsignFile(None)
</example>
</summary>
</scons_function>

<scons_function name="SetDefault">
<arguments signature="env">
(key=val, [...])
</arguments>
<summary>
Sets construction variables to default values specified with the keyword
arguments if (and only if) the variables are not already set.
The following statements are equivalent:

<example>
env.SetDefault(FOO = 'foo')

if 'FOO' not in env: env['FOO'] = 'foo'
</example>
</summary>
</scons_function>

<scons_function name="SideEffect">
<arguments>
(side_effect, target)
</arguments>
<summary>
Declares
<varname>side_effect</varname>
as a side effect of building
<varname>target</varname>.
Both
<varname>side_effect</varname>
and
<varname>target</varname>
can be a list, a file name, or a node.
A side effect is a target file that is created or updated
as a side effect of building other targets.
For example, a Windows PDB
file is created as a side effect of building the .obj
files for a static library,
and various log files are created updated
as side effects of various TeX commands.
If a target is a side effect of multiple build commands,
&scons;
will ensure that only one set of commands
is executed at a time.
Consequently, you only need to use this method
for side-effect targets that are built as a result of
multiple build commands.

Because multiple build commands may update
the same side effect file,
by default the
<varname>side_effect</varname>
target is
<emphasis>not</emphasis>
automatically removed
when the
<varname>target</varname>
is removed by the
<option>-c</option>
option.
(Note, however, that the
<varname>side_effect</varname>
might be removed as part of
cleaning the directory in which it lives.)
If you want to make sure the
<varname>side_effect</varname>
is cleaned whenever a specific
<varname>target</varname>
is cleaned,
you must specify this explicitly
with the
&f-link-Clean;
or
&f-env-Clean;
function.
</summary>
</scons_function>

<scons_function name="SourceCode">
<arguments>
(entries, builder)
</arguments>
<summary>
This function and its associate factory functions are deprecated.
There is no replacement.
The intended use was to keep a local tree in sync with an archive,
but in actuality the function only causes the archive
to be fetched on the first run.
Synchronizing with the archive is best done external to &SCons;.

Arrange for non-existent source files to
be fetched from a source code management system
using the specified
<varname>builder</varname>.
The specified
<varname>entries</varname>
may be a Node, string or list of both,
and may represent either individual
source files or directories in which
source files can be found.

For any non-existent source files,
&scons;
will search up the directory tree
and use the first
&f-SourceCode;
builder it finds.
The specified
<varname>builder</varname>
may be
<literal>None</literal>,
in which case
&scons;
will not use a builder to fetch
source files for the specified
<varname>entries</varname>,
even if a
&f-SourceCode;
builder has been specified
for a directory higher up the tree.

&scons;
will, by default,
fetch files from SCCS or RCS subdirectories
without explicit configuration.
This takes some extra processing time
to search for the necessary
source code management files on disk.
You can avoid these extra searches
and speed up your build a little
by disabling these searches as follows:

<example>
env.SourceCode('.', None)
</example>

Note that if the specified
<varname>builder</varname>
is one you create by hand,
it must have an associated
construction environment to use
when fetching a source file.

&scons;
provides a set of canned factory
functions that return appropriate
Builders for various popular
source code management systems.
Canonical examples of invocation include:

<example>
env.SourceCode('.', env.BitKeeper('/usr/local/BKsources'))
env.SourceCode('src', env.CVS('/usr/local/CVSROOT'))
env.SourceCode('/', env.RCS())
env.SourceCode(['f1.c', 'f2.c'], env.SCCS())
env.SourceCode('no_source.c', None)
</example>
<!-- env.SourceCode('.', env.Subversion('file:///usr/local/Subversion')) -->
</summary>
</scons_function>

<scons_function name="SourceSignatures">
<arguments>
(type)
</arguments>
<summary>
Note:  Although it is not yet officially deprecated,
use of this function is discouraged.
See the
&f-link-Decider;
function for a more flexible and straightforward way
to configure SCons' decision-making.

The
&f-SourceSignatures;
function tells
&scons;
how to decide if a source file
(a file that is not built from any other files)
has changed since the last time it
was used to build a particular target file.
Legal values are
<literal>MD5</literal>
or
<literal>timestamp</literal>.

If the environment method is used,
the specified type of source signature
is only used when deciding whether targets
built with that environment are up-to-date or must be rebuilt.
If the global function is used,
the specified type of source signature becomes the default
used for all decisions
about whether targets are up-to-date.

<literal>MD5</literal>
means
&scons;
decides that a source file has changed
if the MD5 checksum of its contents has changed since
the last time it was used to rebuild a particular target file.

<literal>timestamp</literal>
means
&scons;
decides that a source file has changed
if its timestamp (modification time) has changed since
the last time it was used to rebuild a particular target file.
(Note that although this is similar to the behavior of Make,
by default it will also rebuild if the dependency is
<emphasis>older</emphasis>
than the last time it was used to rebuild the target file.)

There is no different between the two behaviors
for Python
&f-Value;
node objects.

<literal>MD5</literal>
signatures take longer to compute,
but are more accurate than
<literal>timestamp</literal>
signatures.
The default value is
<literal>MD5</literal>.

Note that the default
&f-link-TargetSignatures;
setting (see below)
is to use this
&f-SourceSignatures;
setting for any target files that are used
to build other target files.
Consequently, changing the value of
&f-SourceSignatures;
will, by default,
affect the up-to-date decision for all files in the build
(or all files built with a specific construction environment
when
&f-env-SourceSignatures;
is used).
</summary>
</scons_function>

<scons_function name="Split">
<arguments>
(arg)
</arguments>
<summary>
Returns a list of file names or other objects.
If arg is a string,
it will be split on strings of white-space characters
within the string,
making it easier to write long lists of file names.
If arg is already a list,
the list will be returned untouched.
If arg is any other type of object,
it will be returned as a list
containing just the object.

Example:

<example>
files = Split("f1.c f2.c f3.c")
files = env.Split("f4.c f5.c f6.c")
files = Split("""
	f7.c
	f8.c
	f9.c
""")
</example>
</summary>
</scons_function>

<scons_function name="subst">
<arguments signature="env">
(input, [raw, target, source, conv])
</arguments>
<summary>
Performs construction variable interpolation
on the specified string or sequence argument
<varname>input</varname>.

By default,
leading or trailing white space will
be removed from the result.
and all sequences of white space
will be compressed to a single space character.
Additionally, any
<literal>$(</literal>
and
<literal>$)</literal>
character sequences will be stripped from the returned string,
The optional
<varname>raw</varname>
argument may be set to
<literal>1</literal>
if you want to preserve white space and
<literal>$(</literal>-<literal>$)</literal>
sequences.
The
<varname>raw</varname>
argument may be set to
<literal>2</literal>
if you want to strip
all characters between
any
<literal>$(</literal>
and
<literal>$)</literal>
pairs
(as is done for signature calculation).

If the input is a sequence
(list or tuple),
the individual elements of
the sequence will be expanded,
and the results will be returned as a list.

The optional
<varname>target</varname>
and
<varname>source</varname>
keyword arguments
must be set to lists of
target and source nodes, respectively,
if you want the
&cv-TARGET;,
&cv-TARGETS;,
&cv-SOURCE;
and
&cv-SOURCES;
to be available for expansion.
This is usually necessary if you are
calling
&f-env-subst;
from within a Python function used
as an SCons action.

Returned string values or sequence elements
are converted to their string representation by default.
The optional
<varname>conv</varname>
argument
may specify a conversion function
that will be used in place of
the default.
For example, if you want Python objects
(including SCons Nodes)
to be returned as Python objects,
you can use the Python
&lambda;
idiom to pass in an unnamed function
that simply returns its unconverted argument.

Example:

<example>
print env.subst("The C compiler is: $CC")

def compile(target, source, env):
    sourceDir = env.subst("${SOURCE.srcdir}",
                          target=target,
                          source=source)

source_nodes = env.subst('$EXPAND_TO_NODELIST',
                         conv=lambda x: x)
</example>
</summary>
</scons_function>

<scons_function name="TargetSignatures">
<arguments>
(type)
</arguments>
<summary>
Note:  Although it is not yet officially deprecated,
use of this function is discouraged.
See the
&f-link-Decider;
function for a more flexible and straightforward way
to configure SCons' decision-making.

The
&f-TargetSignatures;
function tells
&scons;
how to decide if a target file
(a file that
<emphasis>is</emphasis>
built from any other files)
has changed since the last time it
was used to build some other target file.
Legal values are
<literal>"build"</literal>;
<literal>"content"</literal>
(or its synonym
<literal>"MD5"</literal>);
<literal>"timestamp"</literal>;
or
<literal>"source"</literal>.

If the environment method is used,
the specified type of target signature is only used
for targets built with that environment.
If the global function is used,
the specified type of signature becomes the default
used for all target files that
don't have an explicit target signature type
specified for their environments.

<literal>"content"</literal>
(or its synonym
<literal>"MD5"</literal>)
means
&scons;
decides that a target file has changed
if the MD5 checksum of its contents has changed since
the last time it was used to rebuild some other target file.
This means
&scons;
will open up
MD5 sum the contents
of target files after they're built,
and may decide that it does not need to rebuild
"downstream" target files if a file was
rebuilt with exactly the same contents as the last time.

<literal>"timestamp"</literal>
means
&scons;
decides that a target file has changed
if its timestamp (modification time) has changed since
the last time it was used to rebuild some other target file.
(Note that although this is similar to the behavior of Make,
by default it will also rebuild if the dependency is
<emphasis>older</emphasis>
than the last time it was used to rebuild the target file.)

<literal>"source"</literal>
means
&scons;
decides that a target file has changed
as specified by the corresponding
&f-SourceSignatures;
setting
(<literal>"MD5"</literal>
or
<literal>"timestamp"</literal>).
This means that
&scons;
will treat all input files to a target the same way,
regardless of whether they are source files
or have been built from other files.

<literal>"build"</literal>
means
&scons;
decides that a target file has changed
if it has been rebuilt in this invocation
or if its content or timestamp have changed
as specified by the corresponding
&f-SourceSignatures;
setting.
This "propagates" the status of a rebuilt file
so that other "downstream" target files
will always be rebuilt,
even if the contents or the timestamp
have not changed.

<literal>"build"</literal>
signatures are fastest because
<literal>"content"</literal>
(or
<literal>"MD5"</literal>)
signatures take longer to compute,
but are more accurate than
<literal>"timestamp"</literal>
signatures,
and can prevent unnecessary "downstream" rebuilds
when a target file is rebuilt to the exact same contents
as the previous build.
The
<literal>"source"</literal>
setting provides the most consistent behavior
when other target files may be rebuilt from
both source and target input files.
The default value is
<literal>"source"</literal>.

Because the default setting is
<literal>"source"</literal>,
using
&f-SourceSignatures;
is generally preferable to
&f-TargetSignatures;,
so that the up-to-date decision
will be consistent for all files
(or all files built with a specific construction environment).
Use of
&f-TargetSignatures;
provides specific control for how built target files
affect their "downstream" dependencies.
</summary>
</scons_function>

<scons_function name="Tool">
<arguments>
(string, [toolpath, **kw])
</arguments>
<summary>
The
&f-Tool;
form of the function
returns a callable object
that can be used to initialize
a construction environment using the
tools keyword of the Environment() method.
The object may be called with a construction
environment as an argument,
in which case the object will
add the necessary variables
to the construction environment
and the name of the tool will be added to the
&cv-link-TOOLS;
construction variable.

Additional keyword arguments are passed to the tool's
<function>generate</function>()
method.

Examples:

<example>
env = Environment(tools = [ Tool('msvc') ])

env = Environment()
t = Tool('msvc')
t(env)  # adds 'msvc' to the TOOLS variable
u = Tool('opengl', toolpath = ['tools'])
u(env)  # adds 'opengl' to the TOOLS variable
</example>

The
&f-env-Tool;
form of the function
applies the callable object for the specified tool
<varname>string</varname>
to the environment through which the method was called.

Additional keyword arguments are passed to the tool's
<function>generate</function>()
method.

<example>
env.Tool('gcc')
env.Tool('opengl', toolpath = ['build/tools'])
</example>
</summary>
</scons_function>

<scons_function name="Value">
<arguments>
(value, [built_value])
</arguments>
<summary>
Returns a Node object representing the specified Python value.  Value
Nodes can be used as dependencies of targets.  If the result of
calling
<function>str</function>(<varname>value</varname>)
changes between SCons runs, any targets depending on
<function>Value</function>(<varname>value</varname>)
will be rebuilt.
(This is true even when using timestamps to decide if
files are up-to-date.)
When using timestamp source signatures, Value Nodes'
timestamps are equal to the system time when the Node is created.

The returned Value Node object has a
<function>write</function>()
method that can be used to "build" a Value Node
by setting a new value.
The optional
<varname>built_value</varname>
argument can be specified
when the Value Node is created
to indicate the Node should already be considered
"built."
There is a corresponding
<function>read</function>()
method that will return the built value of the Node.

Examples:

<example>
env = Environment()

def create(target, source, env):
    # A function that will write a 'prefix=$SOURCE'
    # string into the file name specified as the
    # $TARGET.
    f = open(str(target[0]), 'wb')
    f.write('prefix=' + source[0].get_contents())

# Fetch the prefix= argument, if any, from the command
# line, and use /usr/local as the default.
prefix = ARGUMENTS.get('prefix', '/usr/local')

# Attach a .Config() builder for the above function action
# to the construction environment.
env['BUILDERS']['Config'] = Builder(action = create)
env.Config(target = 'package-config', source = Value(prefix))

def build_value(target, source, env):
    # A function that "builds" a Python Value by updating
    # the the Python value with the contents of the file
    # specified as the source of the Builder call ($SOURCE).
    target[0].write(source[0].get_contents())

output = env.Value('before')
input = env.Value('after')

# Attach a .UpdateValue() builder for the above function
# action to the construction environment.
env['BUILDERS']['UpdateValue'] = Builder(action = build_value)
env.UpdateValue(target = Value(output), source = Value(input))
</example>
</summary>
</scons_function>

<scons_function name="VariantDir">
<arguments>
(variant_dir, src_dir, [duplicate])
</arguments>
<summary>
Use the
&f-VariantDir;
function to create a copy of your sources in another location:
if a name under
<varname>variant_dir</varname>
is not found but exists under
<varname>src_dir</varname>,
the file or directory is copied to
<varname>variant_dir</varname>.
Target files can be built in a different directory
than the original sources by simply refering to the sources (and targets)
within the variant tree.

&f-VariantDir;
can be called multiple times with the same
<varname>src_dir</varname>
to set up multiple builds with different options
(<varname>variants</varname>).
The
<varname>src_dir</varname>
location must be in or underneath the SConstruct file's directory, and
<varname>variant_dir</varname>
may not be underneath
<varname>src_dir</varname>.
<!--
TODO: Can the above restrictions be clarified or relaxed?
TODO: The latter restriction is clearly not completely right;
TODO: src_dir = '.' works fine with a build dir under it.
-->

The default behavior is for
&scons;
to physically duplicate the source files in the variant tree.
Thus, a build performed in the variant tree is guaranteed to be identical
to a build performed in the source tree even if
intermediate source files are generated during the build,
or preprocessors or other scanners search for included files
relative to the source file,
or individual compilers or other invoked tools are hard-coded
to put derived files in the same directory as source files.

If possible on the platform,
the duplication is performed by linking rather than copying;
see also the
<option>--duplicate</option>
command-line option.
Moreover, only the files needed for the build are duplicated;
files and directories that are not used are not present in
<varname>variant_dir</varname>.

Duplicating the source tree may be disabled by setting the
<literal>duplicate</literal>
argument to
<literal>0</literal>
(zero).
This will cause
&scons;
to invoke Builders using the path names of source files in
<varname>src_dir</varname>
and the path names of derived files within
<varname>variant_dir</varname>.
This is always more efficient than
<literal>duplicate=1</literal>,
and is usually safe for most builds
(but see above for cases that may cause problems).

Note that
&f-VariantDir;
works most naturally with a subsidiary SConscript file.
However, you would then call the subsidiary SConscript file
not in the source directory, but in the
<varname>variant_dir</varname>,
regardless of the value of
<literal>duplicate</literal>.
This is how you tell
&scons;
which variant of a source tree to build:

<example>
# run src/SConscript in two variant directories
VariantDir('build/variant1', 'src')
SConscript('build/variant1/SConscript')
VariantDir('build/variant2', 'src')
SConscript('build/variant2/SConscript')
</example>

See also the
&f-link-SConscript;
function, described above,
for another way to specify a variant directory
in conjunction with calling a subsidiary SConscript file.

Examples:

<example>
# use names in the build directory, not the source directory
VariantDir('build', 'src', duplicate=0)
Program('build/prog', 'build/source.c')
</example>

<example>
# this builds both the source and docs in a separate subtree
VariantDir('build', '.', duplicate=0)
SConscript(dirs=['build/src','build/doc'])
</example>

<example>
# same as previous example, but only uses SConscript
SConscript(dirs='src', variant_dir='build/src', duplicate=0)
SConscript(dirs='doc', variant_dir='build/doc', duplicate=0)
</example>
</summary>
</scons_function>

<scons_function name="WhereIs">
<arguments>
(program, [path, pathext, reject])
</arguments>
<summary>
Searches for the specified executable
<varname>program</varname>,
returning the full path name to the program
if it is found,
and returning None if not.
Searches the specified
<varname>path</varname>,
the value of the calling environment's PATH
(<literal>env['ENV']['PATH']</literal>),
or the user's current external PATH
(<literal>os.environ['PATH']</literal>)
by default.
On Windows systems, searches for executable
programs with any of the file extensions
listed in the specified
<varname>pathext</varname>,
the calling environment's PATHEXT
(<literal>env['ENV']['PATHEXT']</literal>)
or the user's current PATHEXT
(<literal>os.environ['PATHEXT']</literal>)
by default.
Will not select any
path name or names
in the specified
<varname>reject</varname>
list, if any.
</summary>
</scons_function>