[OE-core] [PATCH 2/5] devtool: add configure-help subcommand

[Paul Eggleton]

On Tue, 26 Jan 2016 16:17:39 Paul Eggleton wrote:
> Hi Khem,
> 
> On Mon, 25 Jan 2016 22:14:09 Khem Raj wrote:
> > > On Jan 25, 2016, at 9:53 PM, Paul Eggleton
> > > <paul.eggleton at linux.intel.com>
> > > wrote:
> > > 
> > > When you need to set EXTRA_OECONF for a recipe, you need to know what
> > > options the configure script actually supports; the configure script
> > > however is only accessible from within a devshell and (at least in the
> > > case of autotooled software fetched from an SCM repository) may not
> > > actually exist until do_configure has run. Thus, provide a "devtool
> > > configure-help" subcommand that runs the configure script for a recipe
> > > with --help and shows you the output through a pager (e.g. less),
> > > prefaced by a header describing the current options being specified.
> > > 
> > > There is basic support for autotools, cmake and bare configure scripts.
> > > The cmake support is a little hacky since cmake doesn't really have a
> > > concise help option that lists user-defined knobs (without actually
> > > running through the configure process), however that being a design
> > > feature of cmake there's not much I can think of to do about that at
> > > the moment.
> > 
> > this option is autotools specific. We need to convey this precisely. may
> > be
> > involve autotools in the option name or something
> 
> Whilst not all non-autoconf configure scripts provide a --help option, some
> do. ffmpeg/libav is one example (and one where you really do need to see
> the output since there are a lot of options...)

I meant to add, even if configure --help doesn't work (or there is no configure 
script at all) the header this subcommand prints will work with any recipe 
provided that do_configure is actually implemented and contains some actual 
commands as opposed to calls to some other function.

Cheers,
Paul

-- 

Paul Eggleton
Intel Open Source Technology Centre