ocaml / ocaml/dune

Setting dune build directory from dune-workspace

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OCaml
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Description

I'd like to set the dune build directory from the dune-workspace file instead of specifying it on the command line. It looked like I might be able to achieve this by using the (env) stanza to set the DUNE_BUILD_DIR environment variable.

I tried (env (_ (env-vars (DUNE_BUILD_DIR /path/to/new/_build)))) but that din't seem to have any effect (the _build directory in the root was still generated). I also confirmed that setting the environment variable normally on the command line does produce the expected result.

Incidentally this seems like a pretty circuitous way to set this setting - it should probably be configurable from the dune-workspace file natively.

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First steps

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  3. Fork the repository and make your change on a branch.
  4. Open a pull request that references the issue number.

Research direction

Start by examining how dune-workspace handles the (env) stanza and where DUNE_BUILD_DIR is read. Compare the command-line environment behavior with workspace parsing. Done means a native dune-workspace setting selects the requested build directory and the existing command-line behavior remains intact.

Written by the indexing model from the issue text.

Assessment

Tech stack
ocaml
Domain
build-system
Issue type
Feature
Difficulty
4/5
Estimated time
3-5 days
Activity status
Quiet
Clarity
Mostly clear
Newbie friendliness
45/100

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