[GNC-dev] Rework GoogleTest integration

[John Ralls]

> On Aug 12, 2019, at 3:12 PM, Christian Gruber <christian.gruber at posteo.de> wrote:
> 
> Following my previous thread "[GNC-dev] Contribute to GnuCash development" I opened a new topic thread about reworking GoogleTest integration.
> 
> 
> At first some investigation results on bug 797344 <https://bugs.gnucash.org/show_bug.cgi?id=797344>.
> 
> In function gnc_gtest_configure() in file common/cmake_modules/GncAddTest.cmake the two CMake variables GTEST_INCLUDE_DIR and GMOCK_INCLUDE_DIR are set as follows:
> 
> find_path(GTEST_INCLUDE_DIR gtest/gtest.h HINTS ${GTEST_ROOT}/include ${GMOCK_ROOT}/gtest/include /usr/include)
> find_path(GMOCK_INCLUDE_DIR gmock/gmock.h HINTS ${GMOCK_ROOT}/include /usr/include)
> 
> This means, as long as GTEST_ROOT and GMOCK_ROOT are defined and refer to a valid GoogleTest repository, header files gtest.h and gmock.h are found there and the two variables GTEST_INCLUDE_DIR and GMOCK_INCLUDE_DIR will refer to the include directories within this GoogleTest repository.
> 
> In contrast to that the four CMake variables GTEST_MAIN_LIB, GTEST_SHARED_LIB, GMOCK_MAIN_LIB and GMOCK_SHARED_LIB are set in the same function gnc_gtest_configure() as follows:
> 
> find_library(GTEST_MAIN_LIB gtest_main)
> find_library(GTEST_SHARED_LIB gtest)
> find_library(GMOCK_MAIN_LIB gmock_main)
> find_library(GMOCK_SHARED_LIB gmock)
> 
> This means, libraries are always searched in the default CMake search paths. Therefore any preinstalled GoogleTest libraries will be found this way.
> 
> This explains the behaviour described in my bug report.
> 
> 
> Now let's come to my ideas regarding rework of GoogleTest integration. After further studying CMake files I have two general questions at first.
> 
> 1. Why are library targets "gtest" and "gmock" defined in GnuCash build system instead of importing them from GoogleTest build results?
> 
> In file common/test-core/CMakeLists.txt these two targets are defined via add_library(). The same is done within GoogleTest build system in files googletest/CMakeLists.txt and googlemock/CMakeLists.txt. So part of the CMake build system from GoogleTest repository is copied into GnuCash build system.
> 
> My idea is to build and install GoogleTest completely independent from GnuCash using its own build system and then importing targets via find_package() into GnuCash build system. GoogleTest build system provides CMake configuration files after installation ready for importing targets into other projects.
> 
> CMake function find_package() is able to find package GTest via CMake configuration files, i.e. prebuilt from source code repository, as well as preinstalled libraries from distro using internal CMake module FindGTest <https://cmake.org/cmake/help/v3.5/module/FindGTest.html>. Beginning from CMake version 3.5 module FindGTest provides imported targets GTest::GTest and GTest::Main.
> 
> This would avoid mixing of libraries and header files from different locations.
> 
> Additionally the user doesn't have to define extra environment variables GTEST_ROOT and GMOCK_ROOT anymore. Instead the user can configure CMake search path using CMake variable CMAKE_PREFIX_PATH, if desired.
> 
> And the user can choose, which GoogleTest installation should be used by influencing the CMake search path. So the requirement, that one can decide whether to use preinstalled GoogleTest libraries from distro or GoogleTest installation prebuilt from sources would be fulfilled.
> 
> 
> 2. Why is library target "gtest" not used directly instead of variables GTEST_LIB, GTEST_INCLUDE_DIR?
> 
> Several test applications are defined via function gnc_add_test() by passing a list of sources, include directories and libraries to that function. This function gnc_add_test() is defined in file common/cmake_modules/GncAddTest.cmake and passes the list of libraries (TEST_LIBS_VAR_NAME) after resolving the variable names to CMake function target_link_libraries().
> 
> My idea is to add library target "gtest" directly to that list of libraries instead of variable GTEST_LIB, which is possible since CMake function target_link_libraries() can handle libraries as well as CMake targets. The advantage is, that you don't have to handle include directories separately on your own. When passing CMake targets to function target_link_libraries() CMake does all the stuff for you. Include directories defined for that target are added automatically, i.e. target_include_directories() doesn't have to be invoked to add GTEST_INCLUDE_DIR.
> 
> A further advantage is, that all test application targets depend on library target "gtest". And if library target "gtest" is not an imported target, it would be rebuilt automatically if necessary, when building test applications. Currently after any change to GoogleTest sources, e.g. checking out another version, you have to rebuilt GoogleTest libraries at first via "make gtest" for instance before you can rebuilt test applications via "make check" for instance. And if you forget that, you get a mix of GoogleTest header files and libraries from different versions.
> 
> Unfortunatelly in case of an imported target (see my first question), automatic rebuilt is not easily possible. In this case you have to define some extra custom command to invoke external GoogleTest build system.
> 
> 
> These two questions are important to be answered before proceeding. Are there any considerations or constraints, which have to be taken into account, e.g. backwards compatibility?
> 
> 
> Last there is another question.
> 
> 3. Why has GTEST_SRC to be added to the list of sources passed to function gnc_add_test()?
> 
> Variable GTEST_SRC is set to ${GTEST_SRC_DIR}/src/gtest_main.cc in function gnc_gtest_configure() in file common/cmake_modules/GncAddTest.cmake. But as far as I can see this source file is already compiled and archived within library libgtest_main.a, which is also contained in list of libraries passed to function gnc_add_test() via variable GTEST_LIB.
> 

Christian,

A little history: We started using Googletest 1.7.0 in 2014, when our build system was based on autotools. The autotools GTest integration was built from the recommendations of the GTest Readme file of the day (https://github.com/google/googletest/tree/release-1.7.0). When we begun using CMake I wrote gnc_gtest_configure mostly as a port from the autotools configuration before I'd learned much about CMake.

1. Building Googletest from inside the GnuCash build system ensures that it is built with the same compiler flags as GnuCash itself. C++ used to break spectacularly if that wasn't done. It's gotten much better about it in recent years though it's still among the top 10 complaints reported by the standard committee. It would be my preference to always build directly from source this way but some Linux bistro packagers insist that we must use the included package; in some cases those packages provide a shared library instead of a static one, something that the Googletest developers specifically recommend against (or at least did back in v1.7).

2. The GTEST_LIBS and GTEST_INCLUDE_DIRS are holdovers from the old autotools build system. You're correct that using the CMake target would be better.

The only problem with FindGTest is that there's no corresponding FindGMock, see https://gitlab.kitware.com/cmake/cmake/issues/17365.

3. Because that v1.7.0 Readme doesn't say anything about building libgtest_main.a, it just said to build gtest-all.cc into libgtest.a. That readme also warns against even looking at the provided configure.ac, which does build libgtest_main.a, and says to use the compile-by-hand instructions. So I did that, promptly got symbol not found errors for the functions in gtest_main.cc, and simply added that to the source.