Plugin Deps Resolution

Development
1

Hi

I have a plugin (https://github.com/surge-synthesizer/surge-rack) which has a sub-module. If I build it using

git submodule update --init --recursive
RACK_DIR=(...) make

then everything works. If I haven’t done the submodule update, it doesn’t, of course, because it doesn’t find the submodule.

But I have been trying somewhat futile-ly to make it so the submodule init is part of my DEPS. I did something glike

DEPS += surge/LICENSE

and then had a rule for surge/LICENSE which did a submodule update, but that rule fires after my C++ tries to build (and fails)

So my question is

  1. Is it OK if my plugin requires a submodule update before a build - like will that break the plugin manager or is that an expected step for when I submit it? and
  2. Assuming it is not, is there some makefile magic for a plugin I just can’t figure out which does the submodule update --init --recursive before the build starts?

Thank you for any help.

2

IMO Makefiles shouldn’t know about git. Theoretically someone should be able to ZIP your source and build it after manually copying submodules based on .gitmodules.

3

OK cool. That’s fine with me as long as it won’t screw up the community builds! (And while I would have been OK with either option, I agree with you - I explicitly do a submodule in our CI builds rather than have the makefile do it).

4

Heya! So just checking again. I got a user today whose build of my modules failed because

  1. They hadn’t done a git submodule update —init —recursive
  2. make dep didn’t do that step

So while I understand @vortico’s point about git and makefiles, just wondering if other folks with submodules for their plugins have taken a different tack.

5

Just say RTFM and point them to https://vcvrack.com/manual/Building.html#building-rack-plugins.

2 Likes
6

Clear as day. OK! (I update my README also with a reminder)

1 Like