One approach for the use of scanners is with builders. There are two optional parameters we can use with a builder source_scanner and target_scanner.

def kfile_scan(node, env, path, arg):
    contents = node.get_text_contents()
    return env.File(include_re.findall(contents))

kscan = Scanner(function = kfile_scan,
            skeys = ['.k'],
            path_function = FindPathDirs('KPATH'))

def build_function(target, source, env):
    # Code to build "target" from "source"
    return None

bld = Builder(action = build_function,
            suffix = '.foo',
            source_scanner = kscan
            src_suffix = '.input')
env = Environment(BUILDERS = {'Foo' : bld})
env.Foo('file')

      

An emitter function can modify the list of sources or targets passed to the action function when the builder is triggered.

A scanner function will not affect the list of sources or targets seen by the builder during the build action. The scanner function will however affect if the builder should be rebuilt (if any of the files sourced by the scanner have changed for example).