Compile options with "argos --version"

[jharwell]

As I am currently experimenting with building ARGoS with different compile options ("--fprofile-generate, --fprofile-use, etc"), I would find it useful to have ARGoS print the options it was build with in addition to the version, when invoked with -v. Something like this (similar to gcc):

ARGOS_USE_DOUBLE=ON
ARGOS_WITH_LUA=ON
ARGOS_BUILD_NATIVE=ON
ARGOSBuilt with: -mtune=native -march=native -O2 ...
<version>

As is, I have a hard time remembering what exactly the version I'm currently running was built with. Would this be something others in the community would find valuable if I were to implement it and open a pull request?

[ilpincy]

I think it would be a valuable addition, thanks!

[jharwell]

As I'm starting to look at minor modifications to the ARGoS CMake framework to get the needed options into a .h file, I noticed that ARGoS does not use -flto for release builds. Does this break the dynamic library loading, or cause other problems to result in its omission?

[ilpincy]

That option is to switch certain optimizations on, not to make things work, so no - I have never had problems. I have never fiddled with it so far, but I might in future releases. The issue is that, if I make a modification, it must be portable to a wide set of systems. I admit I don't know all the consequences of using that option on all compilers and all the ways in which people might want to link their code to ARGoS.

[allsey87]

Just my two cents. It would be nice if the output of argos -v or argos --version would be easy to parse by CMake. This would be useful in 3rd party plugins that need to check whether to use double or single precision for Real or which version of C++ (11, 14, 17) has been used to build ARGoS.

[jharwell]

What is an example of a format easily parsable by CMake? I was thinking of just doing as gcc does, with one key:value pair per line, with a : or = separator.

[jharwell]

Another question: Right now, ARGOS_WITH_LUA is unconditionally defined (and Lua support compiled in) if the required libraries/cmake package is found. I think adding the ARGOS_WITH_LUA option to the cmake configuration so that users (like me!) can disable Lua support even if it is found would be valuable. On my system, the only reason I need the Lua libraries installed is so that the autocompletion framework I use for coding works with the ARGoS headers. A quick test shows about 10% reduction in the size of some of the generated libraries (which should make ARGoS more efficient):

Original:

-rw-r--r-- 1 jharwell jharwell 1.1M Jul 15 10:07 libargos3core_simulator.so
-rw-r--r-- 1 jharwell jharwell 294K Jul 15 10:07 libargos3plugin_simulator_dynamics2d.so
-rw-r--r-- 1 jharwell jharwell 2.7M Jul 15 10:08 libargos3plugin_simulator_dynamics3d.so
-rw-r--r-- 1 jharwell jharwell 884K Jul 15 10:08 libargos3plugin_simulator_entities.so
-rw-r--r-- 1 jharwell jharwell 199K Jul 15 10:08 libargos3plugin_simulator_epuck.so
-rw-r--r-- 1 jharwell jharwell 261K Jul 15 10:08 libargos3plugin_simulator_eyebot.so
-rw-r--r-- 1 jharwell jharwell 547K Jul 15 10:08 libargos3plugin_simulator_footbot.so
-rw-r--r-- 1 jharwell jharwell 620K Jul 15 10:08 libargos3plugin_simulator_genericrobot.so
-rw-r--r-- 1 jharwell jharwell 313K Jul 15 10:07 libargos3plugin_simulator_media.so
-rw-r--r-- 1 jharwell jharwell 120K Jul 15 10:07 libargos3plugin_simulator_pointmass3d.so
-rw-r--r-- 1 jharwell jharwell 488K Jul 15 10:08 libargos3plugin_simulator_prototype.so
-rw-r--r-- 1 jharwell jharwell 611K Jul 15 10:08 libargos3plugin_simulator_qtopengl.so
-rw-r--r-- 1 jharwell jharwell 189K Jul 15 10:08 libargos3plugin_simulator_spiri.so

Without ARGOS_WITH_LUA:

-rw-r--r-- 1 jharwell jharwell 989K Jul 15 10:02 libargos3core_simulator.so
-rw-r--r-- 1 jharwell jharwell 294K Jul 15 10:02 libargos3plugin_simulator_dynamics2d.so
-rw-r--r-- 1 jharwell jharwell 2.7M Jul 15 10:02 libargos3plugin_simulator_dynamics3d.so
-rw-r--r-- 1 jharwell jharwell 884K Jul 15 10:02 libargos3plugin_simulator_entities.so
-rw-r--r-- 1 jharwell jharwell 199K Jul 15 10:02 libargos3plugin_simulator_epuck.so
-rw-r--r-- 1 jharwell jharwell 255K Jul 15 10:02 libargos3plugin_simulator_eyebot.so
-rw-r--r-- 1 jharwell jharwell 512K Jul 15 10:02 libargos3plugin_simulator_footbot.so
-rw-r--r-- 1 jharwell jharwell 510K Jul 15 10:02 libargos3plugin_simulator_genericrobot.so
-rw-r--r-- 1 jharwell jharwell 313K Jul 15 10:02 libargos3plugin_simulator_media.so
-rw-r--r-- 1 jharwell jharwell 120K Jul 15 10:02 libargos3plugin_simulator_pointmass3d.so
-rw-r--r-- 1 jharwell jharwell 477K Jul 15 10:02 libargos3plugin_simulator_prototype.so
-rw-r--r-- 1 jharwell jharwell 411K Jul 15 10:02 libargos3plugin_simulator_qtopengl.so
-rw-r--r-- 1 jharwell jharwell 189K Jul 15 10:02 libargos3plugin_simulator_spiri.so

[jharwell]

@ilpincy,@allsey87 gentlest of bumps on this. Any thoughts on the changes I've made regarding this issue and /or the output format of the version query? Thanks!