ns-3-dev now using CMake

[Tom Henderson]

The development version of ns-3 (ns-3-dev) is in the process of changing
build systems from Waf to CMake; the next ns-3 release will be based on
CMake. Support for CMake was added yesterday. For the moment, Waf has
not been removed, but we plan to remove it once any lingering issues
with CMake are resolved.

CMake (version 3.10 or greater) will be required in the future, and will
need to be installed via your system's package manager.

CMake has a more complicated syntax than Waf, but we are providing a
small wrapper script called 'ns3' with a Waf-like API to allow people to
perform the main build steps with less typing.

In the past, if you typed:

./waf configure (or ./waf configure --enable-examples)

you should be able to now type:

./ns3 configure (or ./ns3 configure --enable-examples)

and the script will invoke the required CMake commands.

Similarly,

./waf build -> ./ns3 build
./waf --run first -> ./ns3 --run first (or ./ns3 --run-no-build first)

Not all Waf commands will be ported to 'ns3' but many of the most used
options will be supported. You can also just call CMake directly using
instructions documented in the updated ns-3 tutorial:
https://www.nsnam.org/docs/tutorial/html/quick-start.html#brief-summary
and
https://www.nsnam.org/docs/tutorial/html/getting-started.html#building-with-cmake

The second link above has guidance on how to better integrate with IDEs
using CMake.

Thanks are due to Gabriel Ferreira for developing and maintaining CMake
for ns-3, and for updating the tutorial.

- Tom

[Charles Pandian]

Mr. Tom and Developers,

I  support the removal of 'waf' way of dong thing (for your information, I am using ns-3 for more than a decade even without trying to know what 'waf' is doing 😊)

And even I will support if you remove the way of 'bake' based ns-3 install. Because I feel that they are not a 'natural' way of doing things under Linux for decades.

Further, providing more than one way of installation (or compilation) is not providing more options for learners—it is just providing more confusion to beginners.

In the past, if you typed:

./waf configure (or ./waf configure --enable-examples)

you should be able to now type:

./ns3 configure (or ./ns3 configure --enable-examples)

and the script will invoke the required CMake commands.

Similarly,

./waf build -> ./ns3 build
./waf --run first  -> ./ns3 --run first  (or ./ns3 --run-no-build first)

Why can't we simply do the following to build ns-3 using plain old 'make'? :

./configure
make


or Why can't we simply do the following to build ns-3 using 'cmake'? :

cmake .
cmake -build


I mean why can't we avoid some additional scripts (like ns3 here)?


Note: the above one is only my question—not a feature request.

Sorry if I am misunderstanding the developer's original scope of providing 'user-friendly' ways of doing ns-3 installation. 
 

Charles Pandian,

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[Tom Henderson]

>
>
> Why can't we simply do the following to build ns-3 using plain old 'make'? :
>
> ./configure
> make
>

We actually have a Makefile for this purpose (it needs to be updated).
See Makefile in the top-level directory.

- Tom

[Adil Alsuhaim]

Dr. Henderson, 

Does this mean that wscript files, such as the ones that are in every ns-3 module, would eventually be removed? I can see in GitLab that in each ns-3 module, there's a CMakeLists.txt file which is similar to the wscript files.

Cheers,

Adil

[Tom Henderson]

On 12/14/21 2:50 PM, Adil Alsuhaim wrote:

Dr. Henderson, 

Does this mean that wscript files, such as the ones that are in every ns-3 module, would eventually be removed? I can see in GitLab that in each ns-3 module, there's a CMakeLists.txt file which is similar to the wscript files.

Yes, wscript files are planned to be removed, once CMake migration is finished.

- Tom

[Charles Pandian]

I vote for this good Move. We love to compile ns-3 in the same old 'make' way.😊

Charles Pandian,

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