# bootstrap script seems to support building more than it needs to

**URL:** https://discourse.cmake.org/t/bootstrap-script-seems-to-support-building-more-than-it-needs-to/4195
**Category:** Development
**Created:** [October 3, 2021, 9:55am UTC](https://discourse.cmake.org/t/bootstrap-script-seems-to-support-building-more-than-it-needs-to/4195 "2021-10-03T09:55:12Z")
**Posts on this page:** 3
**Page:** 1

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### Author: ![craig.scott](https://discourse.cmake.org/user_avatar/discourse.cmake.org/craig.scott/32/20_2.png) [@craig.scott](https://discourse.cmake.org/u/craig.scott)
#### Post date: [October 3, 2021, 9:55am UTC](https://discourse.cmake.org/t/bootstrap-script-seems-to-support-building-more-than-it-needs-to/4195/1 "2021-10-03T09:55:12Z")

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Does anyone know why the `bootstrap` script has options for enabling building the Qt GUI and running Sphinx? Neither of those seem like things that the `bootstrap` script should be doing. I would have expected the `bootstrap` script only needs to support building a minimal command-line `cmake` that can be used to build the rest of CMake. Is there something I’m missing here?

If they are not needed, we should remove them. That in turn would allow simplification in some places (I saw some bootstrap-related things in `Source/QtDialog/CMakeLists.txt`, for example, where the logic has already been hard-coded anyway).

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### Author: ![ben.boeckel](https://discourse.cmake.org/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/b/ea5d25/32.png) [@ben.boeckel](https://discourse.cmake.org/u/ben.boeckel)
#### Post date: [October 3, 2021, 12:49pm UTC](https://discourse.cmake.org/t/bootstrap-script-seems-to-support-building-more-than-it-needs-to/4195/2 "2021-10-03T12:49:24Z")

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I would have thought they’d just set the options on the configure that is done with the bootstrap binary, but I haven’t done anything with the bootstrap script in a long time.

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### Author: ![brad.king](https://discourse.cmake.org/user_avatar/discourse.cmake.org/brad.king/32/11_2.png) [@brad.king](https://discourse.cmake.org/u/brad.king)
#### Post date: [October 4, 2021, 4:10pm UTC](https://discourse.cmake.org/t/bootstrap-script-seems-to-support-building-more-than-it-needs-to/4195/3 "2021-10-04T16:10:27Z")

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Yes, the bootstrap script doesn’t build `cmake-gui` or Sphinx documentation itself. Those options are just used when the bootstrap `cmake` binary is used to configure the main build. They exist in the `boostrap` script signature so that packagers and end users can have simple one-line configuration of the CMake build.
