Re: [PATCH 1/3] meson: introduce a "docs" alias to compile documentation only

[Patrick Steinhardt <ps@pks.im>]

On Tue, Sep 16, 2025 at 04:14:56AM -0500, Karthik Nayak wrote:
> Patrick Steinhardt <ps@pks.im> writes:
> > diff --git a/meson.build b/meson.build
> > index b3dfcc0497..40b2a2dc54 100644
> > --- a/meson.build
> > +++ b/meson.build
> > @@ -2101,11 +2101,18 @@ endif
> >
> >  subdir('bin-wrappers')
> >  if get_option('docs') != []
> > +  doc_targets = []
> >    subdir('Documentation')
> >  endif
> >
> >  subdir('contrib')
> >
> > +# Note that the target is intentionally configured after including the
> > +# 'contrib' directory, as some tool there also have their own manpages.
> > +if get_option('docs') != []
> > +  alias_target('docs', doc_targets)
> > +endif
> > +
> 
> Shouldn't we also add it to 'meson_options.txt' with default set to
> true? That would ensure that `meson compile` would also build the docs.

We already have the "docs" option in "meson_options.txt". In fact, it is
not even possible to have an option that is _not_ declared in that file
:)

The option accepts an array of choices, where the choices can be "man"
or "html" to build manpages, HTML sites, both or none. So as soon as the
user made at least one choice we enable the "docs" target automatically.

Patrick