Im having an issue where I have an interface library refl, which has a bunch of header files such as foo.h, which have a custom command that produces foo.h.refl.in and foo.h.refl.init.cpp.
Example of the generation rules:
foo.h → foo.h.refl.in, foo.h.refl.init.cpp
foo.cpp
bar.h → bar.h.refl.in, bar.h.refl.init.cpp
Example of the command:
add_custom_command(
OUTPUT ${output_file} # .refl.in
${static_init_outfile} # .refl.init.cpp
COMMAND
reflector -i ${input_file} -o ${output_file} #
${static_init_local_args} ${static_init_args} #
DEPENDS reflector ${input_file}
VERBATIM COMMAND_EXPAND_LISTS)
when target_sources(refl INTERFACE foo.h.refl.in foo.h.refl.init.cpp) is called, and then refl is added as a dependency to an executable, the generated files are not created, but there are build rules created for them, as seen by the CMAKE output:
[13/32] Building CXX object client\king_editor\CMakeFiles\gd_king_editor.dir\__\__\data\reflection\src\datapack_registration.cpp.refl.init.cpp.obj
FAILED: client/king_editor/CMakeFiles/gd_king_editor.dir/__/__/data/reflection/src/datapack_registration.cpp.refl.init.cpp.obj
C:\PROGRA~1\LLVM\bin\clang-cl.exe /nologo -TP -DAPI_NAME=Vulkan -DDEBUG_ENABLED -DDISABLE_DEPRECATED -DDLL_SLIB_LIBRARY -DKN_WITH_EDITOR -DMSVC -DNOMINMAX -DREFLECT_STATIC_DISPATCH -DTOOLS_ENABLED -DTYPED_METHOD_BIND -DUSE_VOLK -DVK_USE_PLATFORM_WIN32_KHR -DVULKAN_ENABLED -DWASAPI_ENABLED -DWIN32 -DWIN64 -DWINDOWS_ENABLED -DWINMIDI_ENABLED -D_CRT_SECURE_NO_WARNINGS -D_WIN32_WINNT=0x0A00 -ID:\Projects\king\client -ID:\Projects\king\client\king_editor -ID:\Projects\king\client\platform\windows -ID:\Projects\king\client\thirdparty\volk -ID:\Projects\king\client\thirdparty\vulkan\include -ID:\Projects\king\client\thirdparty\vulkan -ID:\Projects\king\build\release_debug\client -ID:\Projects\king\slib\include -ID:\Projects\king\extern\concurrentqueue\include -ID:\Projects\king\extern\eigen\include -ID:\Projects\king\extern\asio\include -ID:\Projects\king\build\release_debug\include_gen\fbs\kn_messages -ID:\Projects\king\build\release_debug\include_gen\message_map -ID:\Projects\king\extern\flatbuffers\include -ID:\Projects\king\build\release_debug\include_gen\fbs\kn_fbs -ID:\Projects\king\data\include -ID:\Projects\king\build\release_debug\data\reflection\include -ID:\Projects\king\extern\reflection\refl\include -ID:\Projects\king\extern\boost_hana\include -imsvcD:\Projects\king\extern\libsodium\include -m64 /Zi /O2 /Ob1 /DNDEBUG -MD /EHsc -std:c++20 /showIncludes /Foclient\king_editor\CMakeFiles\gd_king_editor.dir\__\__\data\reflection\src\datapack_registration.cpp.refl.init.cpp.obj /Fdclient\king_editor\CMakeFiles\gd_king_editor.dir\gd_king_editor.pdb -c -- D:\Projects\king\build\release_debug\data\reflection\src\datapack_registration.cpp.refl.init.cpp
clang-cl: error: no such file or directory: 'D:\Projects\king\build\release_debug\data\reflection\src\datapack_registration.cpp.refl.init.cpp'
clang-cl: error: no input files
If I set the *.refl.init.cpp via target_sources to PRIVATE, the files do get generated, but this is not the desired behavior (and it fails to link because of other reasons).
These files are meant to be injected directly into the final library that uses them for compilation, to inherit their defines and include paths (hence the INTERFACE library), as they have code that is executable-dependent due to defines, etc.
If I generate the files via setting them to PRIVATE and then switch back to INTERFACE after the files have been generated, compilation continues normally.