diff options
Diffstat (limited to 'docs/markdown/Release-notes-for-0.54.0.md')
| -rw-r--r-- | docs/markdown/Release-notes-for-0.54.0.md | 361 |
1 files changed, 361 insertions, 0 deletions
diff --git a/docs/markdown/Release-notes-for-0.54.0.md b/docs/markdown/Release-notes-for-0.54.0.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..2c8880c08 --- /dev/null +++ b/docs/markdown/Release-notes-for-0.54.0.md @@ -0,0 +1,361 @@ +--- +title: Release 0.54.0 +short-description: Release notes for 0.54.0 +... + +# New features + +## Emscripten (emcc) now supports threads + +In addition to properly setting the compile and linker arguments, a new meson +builtin has been added to control the PTHREAD_POOL_SIZE option, +`-D<lang>_thread_count`, which may be set to any integer value greater than 0. +If it set to 0 then the PTHREAD_POOL_SIZE option will not be passed. + +## Introduce dataonly for the pkgconfig module +This allows users to disable writing out the inbuilt variables to +the pkg-config file as they might actualy not be required. + +One reason to have this is for architecture-independent pkg-config +files in projects which also have architecture-dependent outputs. + +``` +pkgg.generate( + name : 'libhello_nolib', + description : 'A minimalistic pkgconfig file.', + version : libver, + dataonly: true +) +``` + +## Consistently report file locations relative to cwd + +The paths for filenames in error and warning locations are now consistently +reported relative to the current working directory (when possible), or as +absolute paths (when a relative path does not exist, e.g. a Windows path +starting with a different drive letter to the current working directory). + +(The previous behaviour was to report a path relative to the source root for all +warnings and most errors, and relative to cwd for certain parser errors) + +## `dependency()` consistency + +The first time a dependency is found, using `dependency('foo', ...)`, the return +value is now cached. Any subsequent call will return the same value as long as +version requested match, otherwise not-found dependency is returned. This means +that if a system dependency is first found, it won't fallback to a subproject +in a subsequent call any more and will rather return not-found instead if the +system version does not match. Similarly, if the first call returns the subproject +fallback dependency, it will also return the subproject dependency in a subsequent +call even if no fallback is provided. + +For example, if the system has `foo` version 1.0: +```meson +# d2 is set to foo_dep and not the system dependency, even without fallback argument. +d1 = dependency('foo', version : '>=2.0', required : false, + fallback : ['foo', 'foo_dep']) +d2 = dependency('foo', version : '>=1.0', required : false) +``` +```meson +# d2 is not-found because the first call returned the system dependency, but its version is too old for 2nd call. +d1 = dependency('foo', version : '>=1.0', required : false) +d2 = dependency('foo', version : '>=2.0', required : false, + fallback : ['foo', 'foo_dep']) +``` + +## Override `dependency()` + +It is now possible to override the result of `dependency()` to point +to any dependency object you want. The overriding is global and applies to +every subproject from there on. + +For example, this subproject provides 2 libraries with version 2.0: + +```meson +project(..., version : '2.0') + +libfoo = library('foo', ...) +foo_dep = declare_dependency(link_with : libfoo) +meson.override_dependency('foo', foo_dep) + +libbar = library('bar', ...) +bar_dep = declare_dependency(link_with : libbar) +meson.override_dependency('bar', bar_dep) +``` + +Assuming the system has `foo` and `bar` 1.0 installed, and master project does this: +```meson +foo_dep = dependency('foo', version : '>=2.0', fallback : ['foo', 'foo_dep']) +bar_dep = dependency('bar') +``` + +This used to mix system 1.0 version and subproject 2.0 dependencies, but thanks +to the override `bar_dep` is now set to the subproject's version instead. + +Another case this can be useful is to force a subproject to use a specific dependency. +If the subproject does `dependency('foo')` but the main project wants to provide +its own implementation of `foo`, it can for example call +`meson.override_dependency('foo', declare_dependency(...))` before configuring the +subproject. + +## Simplified `dependency()` fallback + +In the case a subproject `foo` calls `meson.override_dependency('foo-2.0', foo_dep)`, +the parent project can omit the dependency variable name in fallback keyword +argument: `dependency('foo-2.0', fallback : 'foo')`. + +## Backend agnostic compile command + +A new `meson compile` command has been added to support backend agnostic +compilation. It accepts two arguments, `-j` and `-l`, which are used if +possible (`-l` does nothing with msbuild). A `-j` or `-l` value < 1 lets the +backend decide how many threads to use. For msbuild this means `-m`, for +ninja it means passing no arguments. + +```console +meson builddir --backend vs +meson compile -C builddir -j0 # this is the same as `msbuild builddir/my.sln -m` +``` + +```console +meson builddir +meson compile -C builddir -j3 # this is the same as `ninja -C builddir -j3` +``` + +Additionally `meson compile` provides a `--clean` switch to clean the project. + +A complete list of arguments is always documented via `meson compile --help` + +## Native (build machine) compilers not always required + +`add_languages()` gained a `native:` keyword, indicating if a native or cross +compiler is to be used. + +For the benefit of existing simple build definitions which don't contain any +`native: true` targets, without breaking backwards compatibility for build +definitions which assume that the native compiler is available after +`add_languages()`, if the `native:` keyword is absent the languages may be used +for either the build or host machine, but are never required for the build +machine. + +This changes the behaviour of the following meson fragment (when cross-compiling +but a native compiler is not available) from reporting an error at +`add_language` to reporting an error at `executable`. + +``` +add_language('c') +executable('main', 'main.c', native: true) +``` + +## Summary improvements + +A new `list_sep` keyword argument has been added to `summary()` function. +If defined and the value is a list, elements will be separated by the provided +string instead of being aligned on a new line. + +The automatic `subprojects` section now also print the number of warnings encountered +during that subproject configuration, or the error message if the configuration failed. + +## Add a system type dependency for zlib + +This allows zlib to be detected on macOS and FreeBSD without the use of +pkg-config or cmake, neither of which are part of the base install on those +OSes (but zlib is). + +A side effect of this change is that `dependency('zlib')` also works with +cmake instead of requiring `dependency('ZLIB')`. + +## Added 'name' method +Build target objects (as returned by executable(), library(), ...) now have a name() method. + +## New option `--quiet` to `meson install` + +Now you can run `meson install --quiet` and meson will not verbosely print +every file as it is being installed. As before, the full log is always +available inside the builddir in `meson-logs/install-log.txt`. + +When this option is passed, install scripts will have the environment variable +`MESON_INSTALL_QUIET` set. + +Numerous speed-ups were also made for the install step, especially on Windows +where it is now 300% to 1200% faster than before depending on your workload. + +## Property support emscripten's wasm-ld + +Before 0.54.0 we treated emscripten as both compiler and linker, which isn't +really true. It does have a linker, called wasm-ld (meson's name is ld.wasm). +This is a special version of clang's lld. This will now be detected properly. + +## Skip sanity tests when cross compiling + +For certain cross compilation environments it is not possible to +compile a sanity check application. This can now be disabled by adding +the following entry to your cross file's `properties` section: + +``` +skip_sanity_check = true +``` + +## Support for overiding the linker with ldc and gdc + +LDC (the llvm D compiler) and GDC (The Gnu D Compiler) now honor D_LD linker +variable (or d_ld in the cross file) and is able to pick differnt linkers. + +GDC supports all of the same values as GCC, LDC supports ld.bfd, ld.gold, +ld.lld, ld64, link, and lld-link. + +## Native file properties + +As of Meson 0.54.0, the `--native-file nativefile.ini` can contain: + +* binaries +* paths +* properties + +which are defined and used the same way as in cross files. +The `properties` are new for Meson 0.54.0, and are read like: + +```meson +x = meson.get_external_property('foobar', 'foo') +``` + +where `foobar` is the property name, and the optional `foo` is the fallback string value. + +For cross-compiled projects, `get_external_property()` reads the cross-file unless `native: true` is specified. + +## Changed the signal used to terminate a test process (group) + +A test process (group) is now terminated via SIGTERM instead of SIGKILL +allowing the signal to be handled. However, it is now the responsibility of +the custom signal handler (if any) to ensure that any process spawned by the +top-level test processes is correctly killed. + +## Dynamic Linker environment variables actually match docs + +The docs have always claimed that the Dynamic Linker environment variable +should be `${COMPILER_VAR}_LD`, but that's only the case for about half of +the variables. The other half are different. In 0.54.0 the variables match. +The old variables are still supported, but are deprecated and raise a +deprecation warning. + +## Per subproject `default_library` and `werror` options + +The `default_library` and `werror` built-in options can now be defined per subproject. +This is useful for example when building shared libraries in the main project, +but static link a subproject, or when the main project must build with no warnings +but some subprojects cannot. + +Most of the time this would be used either by the parent project by setting +subproject's default_options (e.g. `subproject('foo', default_options: 'default_library=static')`), +or by the user using the command line `-Dfoo:default_library=static`. + +The value is overriden in this order: +- Value from parent project +- Value from subproject's default_options if set +- Value from subproject() default_options if set +- Value from command line if set + +## Environment Variables with Cross Builds + +Previously in Meson, variables like `CC` effected both the host and build +platforms for native builds, but the just the build platform for cross builds. +Now `CC_FOR_BUILD` is used for the build platform in cross builds. + +This old behavior is inconsistent with the way Autotools works, which +undermines the purpose of distro-integration that is the only reason +environment variables are supported at all in Meson. The new behavior is not +quite the same, but doesn't conflict: meson doesn't always repond to an +environment when Autoconf would, but when it does it interprets it as Autotools +would. + +## Added 'pkg_config_libdir' property +Allows to define a list of folders used by pkg-config for a cross build +and avoid a system directories use. + +## More new sample Meson templates for (`Java`, `Cuda`, and more) + +Meson now ships with predefined project templates for `Java`, +`Cuda`, `Objective-C++`, and `C#`, we provided with associated +values for corresponding languages, avalable for both library, +and executable. + +## Ninja version requirement bumped to 1.7 + +Meson now uses the [Implicit outputs](https://ninja-build.org/manual.html#ref_outputs) +feature of Ninja for some types of targets that have multiple outputs which may +not be listed on the command-line. This feature requires Ninja 1.7+. + +Note that the latest version of [Ninja available in Ubuntu 16.04](https://packages.ubuntu.com/search?keywords=ninja-build&searchon=names&suite=xenial-backports§ion=all) +(the oldest Ubuntu LTS at the time of writing) is 1.7.1. If your distro does +not ship with a new-enough Ninja, you can download the latest release from +Ninja's GitHub page: https://github.com/ninja-build/ninja/releases + +## Added `-C` argument to `meson init` command + +The meson init assumes that it is run inside the project +root directory. If this isn't the case, you can now use +`-C` to specify the actual project source directory. + +## More than one argument to `message()` and `warning()` + +Arguments passed to `message()` and `warning()` will be printed separated by +space. + +## Added `has_tools` method to qt module + +It should be used to compile optional Qt code: +```meson +qt5 = import('qt5') +if qt5.has_tools(required: get_option('qt_feature')) + moc_files = qt5.preprocess(...) + ... +endif +``` + +## The MSI installer is only available in 64 bit version + +Microsoft ended support for Windows 7, so only 64 bit Windows OSs are +officially supported. Thus only a 64 bit MSI installer will be +provided going forward. People needing a 32 bit version can build +their own with the `msi/createmsi.py` script in Meson's source +repository. + +## Uninstalled pkg-config files + +**Note**: the functionality of this module is governed by [Meson's + rules on mixing build systems](Mixing-build-systems.md). + +The `pkgconfig` module now generates uninstalled pc files as well. For any generated +`foo.pc` file, an extra `foo-uninstalled.pc` file is placed into +`<builddir>/meson-uninstalled`. They can be used to build applications against +libraries built by meson without installing them, by pointing `PKG_CONFIG_PATH` +to that directory. This is an experimental feature provided on a best-effort +basis, it might not work in all use-cases. + +## CMake find_package COMPONENTS support + +It is now possible to pass components to the CMake dependency backend via the +new `components` kwarg in the `dependency` function. + +## Added Microchip XC16 C compiler support +Make sure compiler executables are setup correctly in your path +Compiler is available from the Microchip website for free + + +## Added Texas Instruments C2000 C/C++ compiler support +Make sure compiler executables are setup correctly in your path +Compiler is available from Texas Instruments website for free + +## Unity file block size is configurable + +Traditionally the unity files that Meson autogenerates contain all +source files that belong to a single target. This is the most +efficient setting for full builds but makes incremental builds slow. +This release adds a new option `unity_size` which specifies how many +source files should be put in each unity file. + +The default value for block size is 4. This means that if you have a +target that has eight source files, Meson will generate two unity +files each of which includes four source files. The old behaviour can +be replicated by setting `unity_size` to a large value, such as 10000. + |