[cfe-dev] Producing compilation databases (was Re: Clang-based indexer and code navigator)

[Joshua Cranmer 🐧]

On 3/14/2013 3:58 PM, Sean Silva wrote:
> The problem is that there are no mature and established tools for 
> generating the database. As the tools improve, the problem will solve 
> itself; there's no reason to bring them into clang really since the 
> major problem is just developing mature tools in the first place. 
> Having a "standardized" format for the compilation database decouples 
> this development from clang itself.

Like David Blaikie, I find this view mistifying. If I wish to be able to 
use Clang's tooling on my codebase, why must I rewrite the entire 
project's build system just to be able to get a file? Adding flags to 
CFLAGS/CXXFLAGS is generally well-supported in almost all build systems, 
so why not enable more people to use other tooling by letting them 
compile with make CFLAGS=-fdump-compilation-database=/path/to/db.json ?

-- 
Joshua Cranmer
Thunderbird and DXR developer
Source code archæologist