comport/tips-tricks.md

pd-lib-builder cheatsheet

Creating special builds

cross-compiling W32 binaries from linux

I'm using the following to cross-compile W32 binaries on my Debian/64bit system, using mingw-w64.

Assuming you have unzipped a W32 package for Pd into ${WINPDPATH}, run:

make system=Windows pdbinpath="${WINPDPATH}/bin/" pdincludepath="${WINPDPATH}/src/" CC=i686-w64-mingw32-gcc

(if the project uses C++, you might also need to sed CXX=i686-w64-mingw32-g++)

building double-precision externals

At the time of writing (2018-02) there is no official Pd that supports double-precision numbers yet. However, if you do get hold of an experimental double-precision Pd, you can easily build your externals for 64-bit numbers:

make CPPFLAGS="-DPD_FLOATSIZE=64"

building externals for W64 (64-bit Windows)

At the time of writing (2018-02) there is no official Pd that supports W64 yet. However, if you do get hold of an experimental W64 Pd, you can easily build your externals for this environment with

make CPPFLAGS="-DPD_LONGINTTYPE=__int64" CC=x86_64-w64-mingw32-gcc

To build a double-precision external for W64, use something like:

make CPPFLAGS="-DPD_LONGINTTYPE=__int64 -DPD_FLOATSIZE=64" CC=x86_64-w64-mingw32-gcc

TODO universal binaries on OSX

Project management

In general it is advised to put the Makefile.pdlibbuilder into a separate subdirectory (e.g. pd-lib-builder/). This makes it much easier to update the Makefile.pdlibbuilder later

You should also use a variable to the actual path of the Makefile.pdlibbuilder (even if you keep it in the root-directory), as this allows easy experimenting with newer (or older) (or site-specific) versions of the pd-lib-builder Makefile.

PDLIBBUILDER_DIR=pd-lib-builder/
include $(PDLIBBUILDER_DIR)/Makefile.pdlibbuilder

Keeping pd-lib-builder up-to-date

git subtree

With git-subtrees, you make the pd-lib-builder repository (or any other repository for that matter) part of your own repository - with full history and everything - put nicely into a distinct subdirectory.

Support for manipulating subtrees has been added with Git-v1.7.11 (May 2012). The nice thing however is, that from "outside" the subtree is part of your repository like any other directory. E.g. older versions of Git can clone your repository with the full subtree (and all it's history) just fine. You can also use git-archive to make a complete snapshot of your repository (including the subtree) - nice, if you e.g. want self-contained downloads of your project from git hosting platforms (like Github, Gitlab, Bitbucket,...)

In short, git subtree is the better git submodule.

So here's how to do it:

Initial setup/check-out

This will create a pd-lib-builder/ directory containing the full history of the pd-lib-builder repository up to its release v0.5.0

git subtree add --prefix=pd-lib-builder/ https://github.com/pure-data/pd-lib-builder v0.5.0

This will automatically merge the pd-lib-builder/ history into your current branch, so everything is ready to go.

Cloning your repository with the subtree

Nothing special, really. Just clone your repository as always:

git clone https://git.example.org/pd/superbonk~.git

Updating the subtree

Time passes and sooner or later you will find, that there is a shiny new pd-lib-builder with plenty of bugfixes and new features. To update your local copy to pd-lib-builder's current master, simply run:

git subtree pull --prefix pd-lib-builder/ https://github.com/pure-data/pd-lib-builder master

Pulling the updated subtree into existing clones

Again, nothing special. Just pull as always:

git pull

Further reading

More on the power of git subtree can be found online

• https://medium.com/@v/git-subtrees-a-tutorial-6ff568381844
• https://www.atlassian.com/blog/git/alternatives-to-git-submodule-git-subtree
• ...

git submodule [DISCOURAGED]

Initial setup/check-out

To add a new submodule to your repository, just run git submodule add and commit the changes:

git submodule add https://github.com/pure-data/pd-lib-builder
git commit .gitmodules pd-lib-builder/ -m "Added pd-lib-builder as git-submodule"

Cloning your repository with the submodule

When doing a fresh clone of your repository, pass the --recursive option to automatically fetch all submodules:

git clone --recursive https://git.example.org/pd/superbonk~.git

If you've cloned non-recursively, you can initialize and update the submodules manually:

git submodule init
git submodule update

Updating the submodule

Submodules are usually fixed to a given commit in their repository. To update the pd-lib-builder submodule to the current master do something like:

cd pd-lib-builder
git checkout master
git pull
cd ..
git status pd-lib-builder
git commit pd-lib-builder -m "Updated pd-lib-builder to current master"

Pulling the updated submodule into existing clones

After you have pushed the submodule updates in your repository, other clones of the repository can be updated as follows:

git pull

The above will make your repository aware, that the submodule is out-of-sync.

$ LANG=C git status pd-lib-builder
On branch master
Your branch is up to date with 'origin/master'.

Changes not staged for commit:
  (use "git add <file>..." to update what will be committed)
  (use "git checkout -- <file>..." to discard changes in working directory)

	modified:   pd-lib-builder (new commits)
$

In order to sync the submodule to the correct commit, run the following:

git submodule update

Drawbacks

git submodule has a number of drawbacks:

• it requires special commands to synchronize the submodules, in addition to synching your repository.
• you must make sure to use an URL for the submodule that is accessible to your potential users. e.g. using git@github.com:pure-data/pd-lib-builder is bad, because it requires everybody who wants to checkout your sources to have a github-account - even if they could checkout your repository anonymously.
• submodules will be excluded from git archive. This means, that if you use a mainstream git provider (like Github, GitLab, Bitbucket,...) and make releases by creating a git tag, the automatically generated zipfiles with the sources will lack the submodule - and your users will not be able to compile your source code.

In general, I would suggest to avoid git submodule, and instead use the better git subtree (above).