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Merged
liuzicheng1987 merged 1 commit into from
Jul 14, 2025
Merged

make sure reflectcpp library namespace is also available when not installing #458

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2 changes: 2 additions & 0 deletions CMakeLists.txt
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Original file line number Diff line number Diff line change
Expand Up @@ -134,6 +134,8 @@ else()
add_library(reflectcpp STATIC)
endif()

add_library(reflectcpp::reflectcpp ALIAS reflectcpp)
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@gemini-code-assist gemini-code-assist Bot Jul 11, 2025

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medium

This is a great addition for improving the consumer experience! However, adding this alias unconditionally could break builds for users who have already implemented the workaround described in the pull request description (i.e., they have their own add_library(reflectcpp::reflectcpp ALIAS reflectcpp)).

To make this change more robust and backward-compatible, it's a good practice to check if the target already exists before creating the alias.

if(NOT TARGET reflectcpp::reflectcpp)
    add_library(reflectcpp::reflectcpp ALIAS reflectcpp)
endif()

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@BestITUserEUW BestITUserEUW Jul 11, 2025

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@gemini-code-assist Will not work if alias library is declared after add_subdirectory or FetchContentMakeAvailable. So even with that a breaking change.

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@gemini-code-assist gemini-code-assist Bot Jul 11, 2025

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You raise a valid point, BestITUserEUW. The if(NOT TARGET reflectcpp::reflectcpp) check primarily prevents redefinition errors if the target were to be defined within the reflectcpp project's own CMake processing or if a user's workaround was placed before the reflectcpp project's inclusion in their top-level CMakeLists.txt.

However, you are correct that if a user has an add_library(reflectcpp::reflectcpp ALIAS reflectcpp) workaround in their own CMakeLists.txt that is processed after reflectcpp's CMakeLists.txt (which now defines this alias), it will indeed lead to a redefinition error. This is an unavoidable consequence of the library now officially providing the reflectcpp::reflectcpp target.

The intent of this PR is to standardize the availability of reflectcpp::reflectcpp. When a library starts providing a target that was previously a common workaround, users who implemented that workaround will need to remove it from their build scripts. While this might require a minor adjustment for some existing users, it ultimately leads to a more consistent and robust build experience for everyone consuming reflectcpp.


if (MSVC)
target_compile_options(reflectcpp PRIVATE $<$<CONFIG:Debug>:-Wall>)
else()
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