13.3. Removing additional files during clean: the Clean Function

There may be additional files that you want removed when the -c option is used, but which SCons doesn't know about because they're not normal target files. For example, perhaps a command you invoke creates a log file as part of building the target file you want. You would like the log file cleaned, but you don't want to have to teach SCons that the command "builds" two files.

You can use the Clean function to arrange for additional files to be removed when the -c option is used. Notice, however, that the Clean function takes two arguments, and the second argument is the name of the additional file you want cleaned (foo.log in this example):

        t = Command('foo.out', 'foo.in', 'build -o $TARGET $SOURCE')
        Clean(t, 'foo.log')
    

The first argument is the target with which you want the cleaning of this additional file associated. In the above example, we've used the return value from the Command function, which represents the foo.out target. Now whenever the foo.out target is cleaned by the -c option, the foo.log file will be removed as well:

        % scons -Q
        build -o foo.out foo.in
        % scons -Q -c
        Removed foo.out
        Removed foo.log