gprinstall does not provide ability to specify folder for ALI files

[onox]

A manually written library project .gpr file provides the ability to specify the folder for .ali files via Library_ALI_Dir. This prevents tons of ALI files from different projects to get installed all in a common library folder (if projects install files manually via a Makefile).

gprinstall does not seem to provide a way to specify a folder for the ALI files, thus all these files get installed in the folder indicated by Library_Dir (when inspecting the generated .gpr file).

For example, I would like gprinstall to be able to generate a .gpr file containing:

for Library_Dir  use "../../lib";
for Library_ALI_Dir use "../../lib/my-project";

[t-14]

Hi. We are trying to understand your use case, can you perhaps elaborate? You say ...

This prevents tons of ALI files from different projects to get installed all in a common library folder

... but when you install different projects using gprinstall, their respective ALIs are placed in the directories <prefix>/lib/<project name>, so you shouldn't ever end up having ALIs from different projects sharing the same dir?

[onox]

That doesn't seem to be the case here. The lib folder contains:

1. a gnat folder containing the generated .gpr file (as expected)
2. the shared library and symlinks (as expected)
3. the .ali files (unexpected)

I used gprinstall from GPL 2015 as follows in a Makefile:

gprinstall --relocate-build-tree -p --install-name='my-project' \
    --sources-subdir=${includedir} \
    --project-subdir=${gprdir} \
    --lib-subdir=${libdir} \
    --prefix=${PREFIX} \
    -P my_project.gpr

gprinstall --help doesn't show a --ali-subdir.

[t-14]

Oh, I see, you are forcing your own sources and lib subdir. Normally the default behavior (i.e. if you only give prefix) is to install in <prefix>/lib/<project>, but you are overriding it. Any reason not to use default gprinstall choices, or at least supply --lib-subdir=${libdir}/my_project etc in your command line?

gprinstall --help doesn't show a --ali-subdir

Just to be clear - what you are really looking for is a command line interface to stage ALI files in their own location, aren't you?

[onox]

but you are overriding it. Any reason not to use default gprinstall choices, or at least supply --lib-subdir=${libdir}/my_project etc in your command line?

The only reason is to simply allow customizing the locations via variables in the Makefile. Using --lib-subdir=${libdir}/my_project indeed installs the ALI files in that folder. I see gprinstall still creates a symlink in ${libdir}. What is the logic that causes it to install in that folder instead of ${libdir}/my_project?

Just to be clear - what you are really looking for is a command line interface to stage ALI files in their own location, aren't you?

Yes, what I am looking for is to be able to specify --ali-subdir=${alidir} with alidir defined somewhere in the Makefile.

[t-14]

What is the logic that causes it to install in that folder instead of ${libdir}/my_project?

It's only done for .so's, the idea is to let you set LD_LIBRARY_PATH=${libdir} and nail them all, instead of having to point to every subdirectory separately.

Yes, what I am looking for is to be able to specify --ali-subdir=${alidir} with alidir defined somewhere in the Makefile.

Understood, we'll look into that.

[t-14]

This has been implemented.

[onox]

Thank you! :+1: