Specifying Switch Settings

Switch settings for a project-aware tool can be specified through attributes in the package corresponding to the tool. The example above illustrates one of the relevant attributes, Default_Switches, defined in the packages in both project files. Unlike simple attributes like Source_Dirs, Default_Switches is known as an associative array. When you define this attribute, you must supply an "index" (a literal string), and the effect of the attribute definition is to set the value of the "array" at the specified "index". For the Default_Switches attribute, the index is a programming language (in our case, Ada) , and the value specified (after use) must be a list of string expressions.

The attributes permitted in project files are restricted to a predefined set. Some may appear at project level, others in packages. For any attribute that is an associate array, the index must always be a literal string, but the restrictions on this string (e.g., a file name or a language name) depend on the individual attribute. Also depending on the attribute, its specified value will need to be either a string or a string list.

In the Debug project, we set the switches for two tools, gnatmake and the compiler, and thus we include corresponding packages, with each package defining the Default_Switches attribute with index "Ada". Note that the package corresponding to gnatmake is named Builder. The Release project is similar, but with just the Compiler package.

In project Debug above the switches starting with -gnat that are specified in package Compiler could have been placed in package Builder, since gnatmake transmits all such switches to the compiler.