The variant_dir keyword argument of the SConscript function provides everything we need to show how easy it is to create variant builds using SCons. Suppose, for example, that we want to build a program for both Windows and Linux platforms, but that we want to build it in a shared directory with separate side-by-side build directories for the Windows and Linux versions of the program.

platform = ARGUMENTS.get('OS', Platform())

include = "#export/$PLATFORM/include"
lib = "#export/$PLATFORM/lib"
bin = "#export/$PLATFORM/bin"

env = Environment(PLATFORM = platform,
                  BINDIR = bin,
                  INCDIR = include,
                  LIBDIR = lib,
                  CPPPATH = [include],
                  LIBPATH = [lib],
                  LIBS = 'world')

Export('env')

env.SConscript('src/SConscript', variant_dir='build/$PLATFORM')
    

This SConstruct file, when run on a Linux system, yields:

% scons -Q OS=linux
Install file: "build/linux/world/world.h" as "export/linux/include/world.h"
cc -o build/linux/hello/hello.o -c -Iexport/linux/include build/linux/hello/hello.c
cc -o build/linux/world/world.o -c -Iexport/linux/include build/linux/world/world.c
ar rc build/linux/world/libworld.a build/linux/world/world.o
ranlib build/linux/world/libworld.a
Install file: "build/linux/world/libworld.a" as "export/linux/lib/libworld.a"
cc -o build/linux/hello/hello build/linux/hello/hello.o -Lexport/linux/lib -lworld
Install file: "build/linux/hello/hello" as "export/linux/bin/hello"

The same SConstruct file on Windows would build:

C:\>scons -Q OS=windows
Install file: "build/windows/world/world.h" as "export/windows/include/world.h"
cl /Fobuild\windows\hello\hello.obj /c build\windows\hello\hello.c /nologo /Iexport\windows\include
cl /Fobuild\windows\world\world.obj /c build\windows\world\world.c /nologo /Iexport\windows\include
lib /nologo /OUT:build\windows\world\world.lib build\windows\world\world.obj
Install file: "build/windows/world/world.lib" as "export/windows/lib/world.lib"
link /nologo /OUT:build\windows\hello\hello.exe /LIBPATH:export\windows\lib world.lib build\windows\hello\hello.obj
embedManifestExeCheck(target, source, env)
Install file: "build/windows/hello/hello.exe" as "export/windows/bin/hello.exe"