Support for grouping targets

[SirLynix]

Is your feature request related to a problem? Please describe.

I'm working on Visual Studio 2019, until now I was using premake to generate my projects. I'm considering replacing it by xmake (because your tool is truly awesome, congrats!) and I'm trying to replicate one feature premake had, groups.

Grouping targets (or projects in premake terms) corresponds to folders in Visual Studio:

Describe the solution you'd like

Some API like target.set_group to specify a group.

Describe alternatives you've considered

Using a prefix in the target name.

Additional context

Screenshots:
With folders (using Premake):

Without folders (using xmake):

[waruqi]

Are you using xmake project -k vs plugin or xmake project -k vsxmake plugin?

[SirLynix]

Here I used the vsxmake plugin, I know vs is deprecated (although it would be nice to add folders to it too).

[waruqi]

We can consider adding a new configuration in future versions: set_values("vsxmake.target.group", "xxx") to set the group name of each target.

target("xx")
    set_values("vsxmake.target.group", "xxx")

But for version 2.3.9, we will not support this feature. For version 2.3.9, we focus on improving package management.

[SirLynix]

No problem. Thank you.

Wouldn't it be better to support groups as as target parameter? Groups could be implemented in multiple projects, as far as I know Visual Studio and XCode both support them. But adding support to makefiles could be done as well.

For example if I have two projects in the same group (let's say "common"), makefiles could support make common

And of course, if a project doesn't support groups they can be safely ignored.

[waruqi]

set_groups("xxx", "yyy")? xmake build xxx yyy?

It seems a good idea, I will consider it, but it may not be supported soon. This involves a lot of changes, you may need to wait some time.

[SirLynix]

Why not target.set_group?

Sure, no problem. I'm already glad you like the idea. 😄

[waruqi]

Why not target.set_group?

Sure, no problem. I'm already glad you like the idea. 😄

only for target.

target()
    set_group()

[SirLynix]

Yes that's what I was suggesting. Seems great! 👍

[waruqi]

After the current 2.3.9 version is released, I will support it in the next version 2.5.1 and there won't be 2.4.x

[AntoineJT]

Okay, I've opened a similar issue, so I bring my ideas here. (You can see the original text here: #1172)

I think the way Premake handles this is not the best way to do.
I think it can be better handled by doing as target does:

group("name")
    target("first_target")
        ...
    target("second_target")
        ...
group_end()

Alternatively, it may be handled like this:

target("first_target")
    ...
target("second_target")
    ...
target_end()

group("name", "first_target", "second_target")
#or
group("name", {"first_target", "second_target"})

or maybe it can be handled the same way as Premake does, but I think the better solution here for users would be the first I propose.

[waruqi]

group("name")
target("first_target")
...
target("second_target")
...
group_end()

The grouping feature is currently only used in the project generator plugin, and the focus of xmake is on xmake build, so I don’t consider adding an additional group() scope api to implement it for now. I will use the set_group("yyy") interface to set group for specify target.

[SirLynix]

Maybe groups could be more useful for xmake, like to build a set of targets. Maybe also set a after build file (like something to execute only after all targets in a group are built). Wouldn't that be interesting?

[waruqi]

Maybe groups could be more useful for xmake, like to build a set of targets. Maybe also set a after build file (like something to execute only after all targets in a group are built). Wouldn't that be interesting?

This can be achieved using add_rules for the same purpose.

[AntoineJT]

At least, can we consider

create_group("name", "first_target", "second_target")

or

create_group("name", {"first_target", "second_target"})

to avoid duplication everywhere?
Maybe it can be added with target.set_group too, as an alternative way to group targets

[waruqi]

I will consider to add target.set_group

[waruqi]

I have supported for vs project on group branch, but I still don’t support vsxmake, you can try vs project first. #1174

add_rules("mode.debug", "mode.release")

target("test1")
    set_kind("binary")
    add_files("src/*.cpp")
    set_group("group1")

target("test2")
    set_kind("binary")
    add_files("src/*.cpp")
    set_group("group1")

target("test3")
    set_kind("binary")
    add_files("src/*.cpp")
    set_group("group1/group2")

target("test4")
    set_kind("binary")
    add_files("src/*.cpp")
    set_group("group3/group4")

target("test5")
    set_kind("binary")
    add_files("src/*.cpp")

target("test6")
    set_kind("binary")
    add_files("src/*.cpp")

[AntoineJT]

Yeah, it works, that's great.

Don't worry about the missing SDL2.dll, that's normal I guess with the vs2019 solution. I just need to add it manually in the build folder.

I'm using vsxmake for my C++ learning project so I will comment out the set_group things until you add it to vsxmake too.

[waruqi]

I have also supported it for vsxmake project and merged into dev branch.

[waruqi]

I added source groups for vs/vsxmake generator #2282