Link error when using boost_thread about meson HOT 5 CLOSED

The whole threading issue with compilers and systems is complicated (as one would expect). I really want to have a good solution for the general case but unfortunately don't have all the knowledge, especially on the Windows side of things.

In the mean time I'll do a fix for this particular case soon, because it really should work automatically.

from meson.

Perhaps it doesn't make sense to use the dependency() construct to define a testing framework? It might be better to have an additional parameter to the test() construct, a framework parameter? Then that parameter would bring in the required dependencies, which may be more than one (like here: Boost testing framework requires unit_test_framework, system and pthreads).

IMHO it makes sense for dependency() to require explicit declaration of all libraries required - it shouldn't do automatic dependency evaluation.

from meson.

I agree with Jussi: this should work automatically. Especially since the dependency on pthreads is an implementation detail (and platform specific). If there were proper (upstream) pkg-config support for boost, it would also list -lpthreads in its --libs list (at least, I would expect it to. see also https://svn.boost.org/trac/boost/ticket/1094)

If someone wonders why an explicit -pthread is necessary when using the boost::mutex but not when using boost::thread, even though the implementation of the latter is also clearly dependent on libpthread. Here is some background: https://wiki.debian.org/ToolChain/DSOLinking.

Also: this issue has nothing to do with 'testing'. I simply modified the existing test to have a quick and easy example to reproduce the issue. Having said that, there might be other boost libs than boost_thread that have #include-based dependencies on external libs.

from meson.

The boost test case now works for me, but my own project does not configure anymore. I get the following python exception:

Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "/home/axel/bin/meson.py", line 184, in <module>
    app.generate()
  File "/home/axel/bin/meson.py", line 147, in generate
    g.generate()
  File "/home/axel/contrib/meson.git/ninjabackend.py", line 132, in generate
    [self.generate_target(t, outfile) for t in self.build.get_targets().values()]
  File "/home/axel/contrib/meson.git/ninjabackend.py", line 132, in <listcomp>
    [self.generate_target(t, outfile) for t in self.build.get_targets().values()]
  File "/home/axel/contrib/meson.git/ninjabackend.py", line 263, in generate_target
    elem = self.generate_link(target, outfile, outname, sorted(obj_list), linker, pch_objects)
  File "/home/axel/contrib/meson.git/ninjabackend.py", line 1293, in generate_link
    commands += linker.thread_link_flags()
AttributeError: 'ArLinker' object has no attribute 'thread_link_flags'

from meson.

I pushed a fix.

from meson.