[petsc-dev] new configuration/compile system for PETSc

[Barry Smith]

   I am revisiting the idea of a new configuration/compile system for PETSc (with the prototype cll:  ssh://petsc@petsc.cs.iit.edu//hg/petsc/cll) and am currently trying to see if we can come up with a list of requirements that satisfies all our needs and everyone's ambitions.  I have added a preliminary list at the top of the cll.py file in that repository and also posted here.

Requirements: 
     X    1) Portability to Windows, Cygwin, Unix (all versions)
         2) Compatible with GUI development systems (Xcode, Eclipse, Emacs, ...)
         3) Able to run parallel configures and builds (on shared memory system enough?)
         4) Able to work with batch systems
         5) Able to handle dependencies between packages (given dependencies between packages builds everything in the correct order)
         6) Able to utilize clang and similar systems
         7) Works seamlessly with GNU autoconf and Cmake packages (that is will build these packages automatically)
         8) Can download and install packages by given URL
         9) Easy to add configurations for packages such as SuperLU, etc that have no decent configuration
     x   10) Can test for available functionalities (include files, etc)
     X   11) Easy to add new types of compilers, new tests
        12) Does dependency analysis and rebuilds only what needs to be rebuilt
        13) Able to manage test suites
        14) Compatible with and able to use revision control systems
        15) Completely command-line controlled but also with a GUI frontend that gives one full control as well
        16) Able to build for bizarre-assed systems like the iPAD and GPUs.

    X  - does,   x - does some

I looked at cmake recently and was not pleased with what I saw.

Any comments, thoughts, complaints and volunteers early solicited.

    Barry