Add support for c libraries. about shards HOT 6 CLOSED

Could you detail your problem and use case before jumping to potential solutions? I'd like to understand what's actually needed beforehand.

It may involve a bunch of problems, like checking for the presence of a library, downloading, compiling, making the lib available to Crystal when linking, etc.

from shards.

Use case #1:

I want to use an existing library but need a few C functions added. As far as I know the only way to use them is by compiling a library and linking it using the crystal provided c bindings.

Use case #2 (similar to above):

I have a small library in my git repository that must be compiled before crystal build is run. Crystal c bindings are used to access the library.

from shards.

what if always call make shard when install new shard, and if user create that task in Makefile, it would be executed (compile some static c libs or something)

from shards.

Thanks for the use cases. We could have some hook commands to be run when an action is performed. For example:

scripts:
  postinstall: "cd ext && make"

The most obvious is postinstall but there could be others, like pre/post upgrade.

from shards.

@technorama I just implemented the postinstall script in #19, tell me if it fits your needs.

from shards.

Closing since #19 got merged.

from shards.