6.6. Using Autotools

Note

There are multiple build systems you could use create a library in Vala (Meson is the recommended one right now).

This page is remains here for legacy purposes.

It is possible to use Autotools to create a library written in Vala. A library is created by using C code generated by Vala compiler, linked and installed as any other library. Then you need tell which C files must be used to create the library and which of them must be distributable, allowing others to compile a tarball without Vala using standard Autotools commands: configure, make and make install.

6.6.1. Example

This example was taken from GXml recent additions. GXmlDom is a library aimed to have a GObject based libxml2 replacement; is written in Vala and originally used to use WAF to build.

• valac can be used to generate C code and headers from Vala sources. At this time is possible to generate a GObjectIntrospection and the VAPI file from the vala sources too.

• gxml.vala.stamp is used as the code sources for our library.

It’s important to add –pkg switches in order to valac to success and set all CFLAGS and LIBS required by the C library to compile and link against.

NULL =


AM_CPPFLAGS = \
        -DPACKAGE_LOCALE_DIR=\""$(prefix)/$(DATADIRNAME)/locale"\" \
        -DPACKAGE_SRC_DIR=\""$(srcdir)"\" \
        -DPACKAGE_DATA_DIR=\""$(datadir)"\"

BUILT_SOURCES = gxml.vala.stamp
CLEANFILES = gxml.vala.stamp

AM_CFLAGS =\
         -Wall\
         -g \
         $(GLIB_CFLAGS) \
         $(LIBXML_CFLAGS) \
         $(GIO_CFLAGS) \
         $(GEE_CFLAGS) \
         $(VALA_CFLAGS) \
         $(NULL)

lib_LTLIBRARIES = libgxml.la

VALAFLAGS = \
    $(top_srcdir)/vapi/config.vapi \
    --vapidir=$(top_srcdir)/vapi \
    --pkg libxml-2.0 \
    --pkg gee-1.0 \
    --pkg gobject-2.0 \
    --pkg gio-2.0 \
    $(NULL)

libgxml_la_VALASOURCES = \
        Attr.vala \
        BackedNode.vala \
        CDATASection.vala \
        CharacterData.vala \
        Comment.vala \
        Document.vala \
        DocumentFragment.vala \
        DocumentType.vala \
        DomError.vala \
        Element.vala \
        Entity.vala \
        EntityReference.vala \
        Implementation.vala \
        NamespaceAttr.vala \
        NodeList.vala \
        NodeType.vala \
        Notation.vala \
        ProcessingInstruction.vala \
        Text.vala \
        XNode.vala \
        $(NULL)

libgxml_la_SOURCES = \
        gxml.vala.stamp \
        $(libgxml_la_VALASOURCES:.vala=.c) \
        $(NULL)

# Generate C code and headers, including GObject Introspection GIR files and VAPI file
gxml-1.0.vapi gxml.vala.stamp GXml-1.0.gir: $(libgxml_la_VALASOURCES)
     $(VALA_COMPILER) $(VALAFLAGS) -C -H $(top_builddir)/gxml/gxml-dom.h --gir=GXmlDom-1.0.gir  --library gxmldom-1.0 $^
     @touch $@


# Library configuration
libgxml_la_LDFLAGS =

libgxml_la_LIBADD = \
        $(GLIB_LIBS) \
        $(LIBXML_LIBS) \
        $(GIO_LIBS) \
        $(GEE_LIBS) \
        $(VALA_LIBS) \
        $(NULL)

include_HEADERS = \
        gxml.h \
        $(NULL)

pkgconfigdir = $(libdir)/pkgconfig
pkgconfig_DATA = libgxml-1.0.pc

gxmlincludedir=$(includedir)/libgxml-1.0/gxml
gxmlinclude_HEADERS= gxml-dom.h

# GObject Introspection

if ENABLE_GI_SYSTEM_INSTALL
girdir = $(INTROSPECTION_GIRDIR)
typelibsdir = $(INTROSPECTION_TYPELIBDIR)
else
girdir = $(datadir)/gir-1.0
typelibsdir = $(libdir)/girepository-1.0
endif

# GIR files are generated automatically by Valac so is not necessary to scan source code to generate it
INTROSPECTION_GIRS =
INTROSPECTION_GIRS += GXmlDom-1.0.gir
INTROSPECTION_COMPILER_ARGS = \
    --includedir=. \
    --includedir=$(top_builddir)/gxml

GXmlDom-1.0.typelib: $(INTROSPECTION_GIRS)
        $(INTROSPECTION_COMPILER) $(INTROSPECTION_COMPILER_ARGS)  $< -o $@

gir_DATA = $(INTROSPECTION_GIRS)
typelibs_DATA = GXmlDom-1.0.typelib

vapidir = $(VALA_VAPIDIR)
vapi_DATA=gxmldom-1.0.vapi

CLEANFILES += $(INTROSPECTION_GIRS) $(typelibs_DATA) gxml-1.0.vapi

EXTRA_DIST = \
        libgxml-1.0.pc.in \
        $(libgxml_la_VALASOURCES) \
        $(typelibs_DATA) \
        $(INTROSPECTION_GIRS) \
        gxml.vala.stamp