SCons 4.8.0 is available

A new SCons release, 4.8.0, is now available on the SCons download page:

https://scons.org/pages/download.html

Here is a summary of the changes since 4.7.0:

NEW FUNCTIONALITY

  • GetSConsVersion() added to retrieve the SCons version.

DEPRECATED FUNCTIONALITY

  • Mark Python 3.6 support as deprecated. Use --warn=no-python-version to quiet the warning.

CHANGED/ENHANCED EXISTING FUNCTIONALITY

  • Dump() with json format selected now recognizes additional compound types (UserDict and UserList), which improves the detail of the display. json output is also sorted, to match the default display.
  • Python 3.13 changes the behavior of isabs() on Windows. Adjust SCons usage of this in NodeInfo classes to avoid test problems.
  • Drop duplicated __getstate__ and __setstate__ methods in AliasNodeInfo, FileNodeInfo and ValueNodeInfo classes, as they are identical to the ones in parent NodeInfoBase and can just be inherited.
  • All exceptions during the execution of an Action are now returned by value rather than by raising an exception, for more consistent behavior. NOTE: With this change, user created Actions should now catch and handle expected exceptions (whereas previously many of these were silently caught and suppressed by the SCons Action exection code).
  • ParseFlags now sorts a --stdlib=libname argument into CXXFLAGS instead of CCFLAGS; the latter variable could cause a compiler warning.
  • The implementation of Variables was slightly refactored, there should not be user-visible changes.
  • MSVC: For msvc version specifications without an 'Exp' suffix, an express installation is used when no other edition is detected for the msvc version. This was the behavior for Visual Studio 2008 (9.0) through Visual Studio 2015 (14.0). This behavior was extended to Visual Studio 2017 (14.1) and Visual Studio 2008 (8.0). An express installation of the IDE binary is used when no other IDE edition is detected.
  • The vswhere executable locations for the WinGet and Scoop package managers were added to the default vswhere executable search list after the Chocolatey installation location.
  • SCons.Environment.is_valid_construction_var() now returns a boolean to match the convention that functions beginning with "is" have yes/no answers (previously returned either None or an re.match object). Now matches the annotation and docstring (which were prematurely updated in 4.6). All SCons usage except unit test was already fully consistent with a bool.
  • The Variables object Add method now accepts a subst keyword argument (defaults to True) which can be set to inhibit substitution prior to calling the variable's converter and validator.
  • AddOption and the internal add_local_option which AddOption calls now recognize a "settable" keyword argument to indicate a project-added option can also be modified using SetOption. NOTE: If you were using ninja and using SetOption() for ninja options in your SConscripts prior to loading the ninja tool, you will now see an error. The fix is to move the SetOption() to after you've loaded the ninja tool.
  • ListVariable now has a separate validator, with the functionality that was previously part of the converter. The main effect is to allow a developer to supply a custom validator, which previously could be inhibited by the converter failing before the validator is reached.
  • When debugging (--debug=pdb), the filename SCsub is now recognized when manipulating breakpoints.

FIXES

  • OSErrors are now no longer hidden during the execution of Actions.
  • Improved the conversion of a "foreign" exception from an action into BuildError by making sure our defaults get applied even in corner cases. Fixes Issue #4530
  • MSVC: Visual Studio 2010 (10.0) could be inadvertently detected due to an sdk-only install of Windows SDK 7.1. An sdk-only install of Visual Studio 2010 is ignored as the msvc batch files will fail. The installed files are intended to be used in conjunction with the SDK batch file. Similar protection was added for Visual Studio 2008 (9.0).
  • MSVC: For Visual Studio 2005 (8.0) to Visual Studio 2015 (14.0), detection of installed files was expanded to include the primary msvc batch file, dependent msvc batch file, and compiler executable. In certain installations, the dependent msvc batch file may not exist while the compiler executable does exist resulting in a build failure.
  • MSVC: Visual Studio 2008 (9.0) Visual C++ For Python was not detected when installed using the ALLUSERS command-line option: msiexec /i VCForPython27.msi ALLUSERS=1 When installed for all users, Visual Studio 2008 (9.0) Visual C++ For Python is now correctly detected.
  • MSVC: For Visual Studio 2008 (9.0), a full development edition (e.g., Professional) is now selected before a Visual C++ For Python edition. Prior to this change, Visual C++ For Python was selected before a full development edition when both editions are installed.
  • The vswhere executable is frozen upon initial detection. Specifying a different vswhere executable via the construction variable VSWHERE after the initial detection now results in an exception. Multiple bugs in the implementation of specifying a vswhere executable via the construction variable VSWHERE have been fixed. Previously, when a user specified vswhere executable detects new msvc installations after the initial detection, the internal msvc installation cache and the default msvc version based on the initial detection are no longer valid. For example, when no vswhere executable is found for the initial detection and then later an environment is constructed with a user specified vswhere executable that detects new msvc installations.
  • MSVC: Visual Studio 2022 v143 BuildTools now supports msvc toolset versions from 14.30 to 14.4X. Fixes Issue #4543.
  • The Clone() method now respects the variables argument (fixes #3590)

IMPROVEMENTS

  • Make the testing framework a little more resilient: the temporary directory for tests now includes a component named "scons" which can be given to antivirus software to exclude.
  • Performance tweak: the __setitem__ method of an Environment, used for setting construction variables, now uses the string method isidentifier to validate the name (updated from microbenchmark results).
  • MSVC: Visual Studio 2015 Express (14.0Exp) does not support the sdk version argument. Visual Studio 2015 Express does not support the store argument for target architectures other than x86. Script argument validation now takes into account these restrictions.
  • MSVC: Visual Studio 2015 BuildTools (14.0) does not support the sdk version argument and does not support the store argument. Script argument validation now takes into account these restrictions.
  • MSVC: The registry detection of VS2015 (14.0), and earlier, is now cached at runtime and is only evaluated once for each msvc version.
  • MSVC: The vswhere detection of VS2017 (14.1), and later, is now cached at runtime and is only evaluated once using a single vswhere invocation for all msvc versions.

PACKAGING

  • setup.cfg logic now handled via pyproject.toml; consequently, setup.cfg was removed.

DOCUMENTATION

  • Updated Value Node docs.
  • Update manpage for Tools, and for the TOOL variable.
  • Update manpage and user guide for Variables usage.
  • Restructured API Docs build so main package contents are listed before contents of package submodules.
  • Updated manpage description of Command "builder" and function.
  • Updated the notes about reproducible builds with SCons and the example.
  • Regularized header (copyright, licens) at top of documentation files using SPDX.
  • Updated introductory section of manual page.

DEVELOPMENT

  • Documentation build now properly passes through skipping the PDF (and EPUB) builds of manpage and user guide; this can also be done manually if directly calling doc/man/SConstruct and doc/user/SConstruct by adding SKIP_PDF=1. This should help with distro packaging of SCons, which now does not need "fop" and other tools to be set up in order to build pdf versions which are then ignored.
  • .gitattributes has been setup to mirror .editorconfig's eol settings. The repo-wide line-ending is now lf, with the exception of a few Windows-only files using crlf instead. Any files not already fitting this format have been explicitly converted.
  • Repository linter/formatter changed from flake8/black to ruff, as the latter grants an insane speed boost without compromising functionality. Existing settings were migrated 1-to-1 where possible.
  • The test runner now recognizes the unittest module's return code of 5, which means no tests were run. SCons/Script/MainTests.py currently has no tests, so this particular error code is expected - should not cause runtest to give up with an "unknown error code".
  • is_valid_construction_var() (not part of the public API) moved from SCons.Environment to SCons.Util to avoid the chance of import loops. Variables and Environment both use the routine and Environment() uses a Variables() object so better to move to a safer location.

Thanks to the following contributors listed below for their contributions to this release.

git shortlog --no-merges -ns 4.7.0..HEAD
    70  Mats Wichmann
    35  Joseph Brill
    26  William Deegan
     7  Raymond Li
     7  Thaddeus Crews