How to capture CMake command line arguments?

Question

I want to record the arguments passed to cmake in my generated scripts. E.g., \"my-config.in\" will be processed by cmake, it has definition like this:

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Answer 1

One way to store CMake command line arguments, is to have a wrapper script called ~/bin/cmake (***1) , which does 2 things:

• create ./cmake_call.sh that stores the command line arguments
• call the real cmake executable with the command line arguments

~/bin/cmake # code is shown below

#!/usr/bin/env bash

#
# Place this file into this location: ~/bin/cmake
# (with executable rights)
#
# This is a wrapper for cmake!
# * It calls cmake -- see last line of the script
# It also:
# * Creates a file cmake_call.sh in the current directory (build-directory)
#   which stores the cmake-call with all it's cmake-flags etc.
#   (It also stores successive calls to cmake, so that you have a trace of all your cmake calls)
#
# You can simply reinvoke the last cmake commandline with: ./cmake_call.sh  !!!!!!!!!!
#
# cmake_call.sh is not created
#   when cmake is called without any flags,
#   or when it is called with flags such as --help, -E, -P, etc. (refer to NON_STORE_ARGUMENTS -- you might need to modify it to suit your needs)

SCRIPT_PATH=$(readlink -f "$BASH_SOURCE")
SCRIPT_DIR=$(dirname "$SCRIPT_PATH")

#http://stackoverflow.com/a/13864829
if [ -z ${SUDO_USER+x} ]; then
    # var SUDO_USER is unset
    user=$USER
else
    user=$SUDO_USER
fi


#http://stackoverflow.com/a/34621068
path_append ()  { path_remove $1 $2; export $1="${!1}:$2"; }
path_prepend()  { path_remove $1 $2; export $1="$2:${!1}"; }
path_remove ()  { export $1="`echo -n ${!1} | awk -v RS=: -v ORS=: '$1 != "'$2'"' | sed 's/:$//'`"; }

path_remove PATH ~/bin # when calling cmake (at the bottom of this script), do not invoke this script again!




# when called with no arguments, don't create cmake_call.sh
if [[ -z "$@" ]]; then
   cmake "$@"
   exit
fi


# variable NON_STORE_ARGUMENTS stores flags which, if any are present, cause cmake_call.sh to NOT be created
read -r -d '' NON_STORE_ARGUMENTS <<'EOF'
-E
--build
#-N
-P
--graphviz
--system-information
--debug-trycompile
#--debug-output
--help
-help
-usage
-h
-H
--version
-version
/V
--help-full
--help-manual
--help-manual-list
--help-command
--help-command-list
--help-commands
--help-module
--help-module-list
--help-modules
--help-policy
--help-policy-list
--help-policies
--help-property
--help-property-list
--help-properties
--help-variable
--help-variable-list
--help-variables
EOF

NON_STORE_ARGUMENTS=$(echo "$NON_STORE_ARGUMENTS" | head -c -1 `# remove last newline` | sed "s/^/^/g" `#begin every line with ^` | tr '\n' '|')

#echo "$NON_STORE_ARGUMENTS" ## for debug purposes

## store all the args
ARGS_STR=
for arg in "$@"; do
    if cat <<< "$arg" | grep -E -- "$NON_STORE_ARGUMENTS" &> /dev/null; then  # don't use   echo "$arg"  ....
                                                                              # since echo "-E"    does not do what you want here,
                                                                              # but   cat <<< "-E" does what you want (print minus E)
        # do not create cmake_call.sh
        cmake "$@"
        exit
    fi

    # concatenate to ARGS_STR
    ARGS_STR="${ARGS_STR}$(echo -n " \"$arg\"" | sed "s,\($(pwd)\)\(\([/ \t,:;'\"].*\)\?\)$,\$(pwd)\2,g")"
    #                                             replace $(pwd) followed by
    #                                                                  /             or
    #                                                                   whitespace   or
    #                                                                      ,         or
    #                                                                       :        or
    #                                                                        ;       or
    #                                                                         '      or
    #                                                                           "
    #                                                                    or nothing
    #                                             with \$(pwd)
done









if [[ ! -e $(pwd)/cmake_call.sh ]]; then
echo    "#!/usr/bin/env bash" >  $(pwd)/cmake_call.sh

# escaping:
# note in the HEREDOC below, \\ means \ in the output!!
#                            \$ means $ in the output!!
#                            \` means ` in the output!!
cat <>  $(pwd)/cmake_call.sh


#http://stackoverflow.com/a/34621068
path_remove ()  { export \$1="\`echo -n \${!1} | awk -v RS=: -v ORS=: '\$1 != "'\$2'"' | sed 's/:\$//'\`"; }

path_remove PATH ~/bin # when calling cmake (at the bottom of this script), do not invoke ~/bin/cmake but real cmake!


EOF
else
    # remove bottom 2 lines from cmake_call.sh
    sed -i '$ d' $(pwd)/cmake_call.sh
    sed -i '$ d' $(pwd)/cmake_call.sh
fi


echo "ARGS='${ARGS_STR}'" >> $(pwd)/cmake_call.sh
echo "echo cmake \"\$ARGS\""  >> $(pwd)/cmake_call.sh
echo "eval cmake \"\$ARGS\""  >> $(pwd)/cmake_call.sh
#echo "eval which cmake"       >> $(pwd)/cmake_call.sh

chmod +x     $(pwd)/cmake_call.sh
chown $user: $(pwd)/cmake_call.sh

cmake "$@"

Usage:

mkdir build
cd    build
cmake -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=Debug -DCMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX=$(pwd)/install ..

This will create cmake_call.sh with the following content:

#!/usr/bin/env bash


#http://stackoverflow.com/a/34621068
path_remove ()  { export $1="`echo -n ${!1} | awk -v RS=: -v ORS=: '$1 != "'$2'"' | sed 's/:$//'`"; }

path_remove PATH ~/bin # when calling cmake (at the bottom of this script), do not invoke ~/bin/cmake but real cmake!


ARGS=' "-DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=Debug" "-DCMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX=$(pwd)/install" ".."'
echo cmake "$ARGS"
eval cmake "$ARGS"

The 3rd last line stores the cmake arguments. You can now reinvoke the exact command-line that you used by simply calling:

./cmake_call.sh

Footnotes:

(***1) ~/bin/cmake is usually in the PATH because of ~/.profile. When creating ~/bin/cmake the very 1st time, it might be necessary to log out and back in, so that .profile sees ~/bin.