Обсуждение: meson html:alias vs. html:custom

When I run

meson compile -C build html

I get this error message:

INFO: autodetecting backend as ninja

ERROR: Can't invoke target `html`: ambiguous name. Add target type 
and/or path:
- ./doc/src/sgml/html:custom
- ./doc/src/sgml/html:alias

If I follow that advice and run meson compile -C build html:alias or 
html:custom, then it works.

The setup in doc/src/sgml/meson.build is

html = custom_target('html', ...)

alias_target('html', html)

If I remove the alias_target, then my original command works.  What is 
the purpose of this alias?

(The equivalent problem exists for "man".)

Hi,

On Tue, 14 Apr 2026 at 11:08, Peter Eisentraut <peter@eisentraut.org> wrote:
>
> If I remove the alias_target, then my original command works.  What is
> the purpose of this alias?

I think the main purpose was using these targets with the ninja
command like: 'ninja ${target}'. ninja command doesn't work when the
alias_target() is removed.


-- 
Regards,
Nazir Bilal Yavuz
Microsoft

On 2026-04-14, Nazir Bilal Yavuz wrote:

> On Tue, 14 Apr 2026 at 11:08, Peter Eisentraut <peter@eisentraut.org> wrote:
>>
>> If I remove the alias_target, then my original command works.  What is
>> the purpose of this alias?
>
> I think the main purpose was using these targets with the ninja
> command like: 'ninja ${target}'. ninja command doesn't work when the
> alias_target() is removed.

I think this is kinda silly. I would rather rename the meson target (to, say, do_html) and make the alias reference
that,so that both "meson compile html" and "ninja html" would use the alias. 

--
Álvaro Herrera

Hi,

On Thu, 16 Apr 2026 at 09:26, Álvaro Herrera <alvherre@kurilemu.de> wrote:
>
> On 2026-04-14, Nazir Bilal Yavuz wrote:
>
> > On Tue, 14 Apr 2026 at 11:08, Peter Eisentraut <peter@eisentraut.org> wrote:
> >>
> >> If I remove the alias_target, then my original command works.  What is
> >> the purpose of this alias?
> >
> > I think the main purpose was using these targets with the ninja
> > command like: 'ninja ${target}'. ninja command doesn't work when the
> > alias_target() is removed.
>
> I think this is kinda silly. I would rather rename the meson target (to, say, do_html) and make the alias reference
that,so that both "meson compile html" and "ninja html" would use the alias. 

I agree with you. Here is a patch for fixing this problem with your
suggestion. I added the '-custom' suffix instead of the 'do_' prefix,
I think this makes it more concrete.


--
Regards,
Nazir Bilal Yavuz
Microsoft

On 16.04.26 09:46, Nazir Bilal Yavuz wrote:
> Hi,
> 
> On Thu, 16 Apr 2026 at 09:26, Álvaro Herrera <alvherre@kurilemu.de> wrote:
>>
>> On 2026-04-14, Nazir Bilal Yavuz wrote:
>>
>>> On Tue, 14 Apr 2026 at 11:08, Peter Eisentraut <peter@eisentraut.org> wrote:
>>>>
>>>> If I remove the alias_target, then my original command works.  What is
>>>> the purpose of this alias?
>>>
>>> I think the main purpose was using these targets with the ninja
>>> command like: 'ninja ${target}'. ninja command doesn't work when the
>>> alias_target() is removed.
>>
>> I think this is kinda silly. I would rather rename the meson target (to, say, do_html) and make the alias reference
that,so that both "meson compile html" and "ninja html" would use the alias.
 
> 
> I agree with you. Here is a patch for fixing this problem with your
> suggestion. I added the '-custom' suffix instead of the 'do_' prefix,
> I think this makes it more concrete.

Committed, thanks.