I would like to know how to solve this problem with dub.

dub.sdl

name "dheaders"
description "generates .di header file for a static library."
authors "public domain"
copyright "Public Domain. No rights reserved."
license "public domain"

configuration "staticLibrary" {
	dflags "-Hf=$PACKAGE_DIR/builds/library.di"
	targetName "library"
	targetType "library"
	targetPath "builds"
	sourceFiles "library.d"	
}

library.d

module library;

int func(int x)
{
    return x+1;
}

Command Line:

dub

Problem:
After running dub command: library.di file is rarely/inconsistenly generated inside builds directory.

On Sunday, 5 November 2023 at 10:53:33 UTC, BoQsc wrote:

name "dheaders"
description "generates .di header file for a static library."
authors "public domain"
copyright "Public Domain. No rights reserved."
license "public domain"

configuration "staticLibrary" {
	dflags "-Hf=$PACKAGE_DIR/builds/library.di"
	targetName "library"
	targetType "library"
	targetPath "builds"
	sourceFiles "library.d"	
}

module library;

int func(int x)
{
    return x+1;
}

dub

Try add quotes to the Hf param

On Sunday, 5 November 2023 at 10:54:35 UTC, Imperatorn wrote:

name "dheaders"
description "generates .di header file for a static library."
authors "public domain"
copyright "Public Domain. No rights reserved."
license "public domain"

configuration "staticLibrary" {
	dflags "-Hf=$PACKAGE_DIR/builds/library.di"
	targetName "library"
	targetType "library"
	targetPath "builds"
	sourceFiles "library.d"	
}

module library;

int func(int x)
{
    return x+1;
}

dub

Didn't help.

Conclusive observation:
This can be resolved by informing dub of extraDependencyFiles to rebuild itself.
library.di non-existance simply does not trigger rebuild of the package and instead only library.lib is being copied from the cache folder into build folder. Leaving library.di not being generated.

if cache folder exists with a output file, it does not trigger build, only copies from the \cache's \build folder. If build is not triggered, .di file is not being generated.

Observations:

• Happens with dub.json as well.

• Mostly .di stops generating after the first output of dub.

• Making any text changes to content of dub.sdl triggers dub to rebuild package and generate.di

• Deleting the cache output file will trigger to rebuild the package and generate .di

  • C:\Users\Windows10\AppData\Local\dub\cache\dheaders\~master\build
  • After deleting library.lib inside latest cache folder build: The .di starts to generate.

Solution:

Working example:

dub.sdl

name "dheaders"
description "generates .di header file for a static library."
authors "public domain"
copyright "Public Domain. No rights reserved."
license "public domain"

configuration "staticLibrary" {
	dflags "-Hf=$PACKAGE_DIR/builds/library.di"
	targetName "library"
	targetType "library"
	targetPath "builds"
	sourceFiles "library.d"	
	extraDependencyFiles "$PACKAGE_DIR/builds/library.di"
}

Configuration to generate only .di (D Header file)

name "dheaders"
description "generates .di header file for a static library."
authors "public domain"
copyright "Public Domain. No rights reserved."
license "public domain"

configuration "staticLibrary" {
	dflags "-Hf=$PACKAGE_DIR/builds/library.di"
	targetName "library"
	targetType "library"
	targetPath "builds"
	sourceFiles "library.d"	
	extraDependencyFiles "$PACKAGE_DIR/builds/library.di"
	dflags "-o-"
}

-o- Suppress generation of object file. Useful in conjuction with -D or -H flags.

Similarly buildOptions "syntaxOnly" can also be used in-place of dflag "-o-" they are correspondingly the same.

configuration "staticLibrary" {
	dflags "-Hf=$PACKAGE_DIR/builds/library.di"
	targetName "library"
	targetType "library"
	targetPath "builds"
	sourceFiles "library.d"	
	extraDependencyFiles "$PACKAGE_DIR/builds/library.di"
	buildOptions "syntaxOnly"
}

Update:

To allow only .di (D Header) output:

Instead of configuration, it would be more correct to make a new build type.

buildType "headerFileOnly" {
	extraDependencyFiles "$PACKAGE_DIR/builds/library.di"
	dflags "-Hf=$PACKAGE_DIR/builds/library.di"
	dflags "-o-"
	SourceFile "library.d"
}

Usage:

dub --build=headerFileOnly

This will produce only the .di D header file without .lib file.

In summary this is what it all combined could look like.

dub.sdl

name "dheaders"
description "generates .di header file for a static library."
authors "public domain"
copyright "Public Domain. No rights reserved."
license "public domain"

configuration "staticLibrary" {
	dflags "-Hf=$PACKAGE_DIR/builds/library.di"
	targetName "library"
	targetType "library"
	targetPath "builds"
	sourceFiles "library.d"	
	extraDependencyFiles "$PACKAGE_DIR/builds/library.di"
}

configuration "staticLibraryNoDIHeader" {
	targetName "library"
	targetType "library"
	targetPath "builds"
	sourceFiles "library.d"
}

buildType "headerFileOnly" {
	extraDependencyFiles "$PACKAGE_DIR/builds/library.di"
	dflags "-Hf=$PACKAGE_DIR/builds/library.di"
	dflags "-o-"
	sourceFiles "library.d"
}

library.d

module library;

int func(int x)
{
    return x+1;
}

Command Line:

dub --build=headerFileOnly
dub --config=staticLibraryNoDIHeader
dub --config=staticLibrary

First one creates only .di d header file
Second one creates only .lib static library file.
Third one creates both .lib and .di files.

To test the behaviour of static library.

program.d

module program;
import std.stdio;
import library;

void main(string[] args)
{
    writeln("func(3) = ", library.func(3));
}

Command Line:

dmd "./program.d" "./builds/library.di" "./builds/library.lib" -ofProgram.exe
Program.exe

Output:

func(3) = 4