[libgpiod]: Meson wrap for libgpiod

["Andrew Jeffery" <andrew@xxxxxxxx>]

Hi Bartosz,

I use libgpiod as part of supporting various platforms in 
OpenBMC[1][2], among other things. OpenBMC generally targets ARM SoCs, 
and this means cross-compiling applications and their dependencies as 
part of the day-to-day work.

While cross-compilation for (complex) userspace can be achieved using 
distro systems like buildroot and openembedded/bitbake or their SDKs, 
the meson build system[3] provides dependency resolution and (cross) 
builds as explicit features through subprojects[4] and the wrap package 
system[5]. In my experience, these features are compelling.

To help me develop userspace applications that depend on libgpiod I've 
opened a pull-request against meson's wrap database[6] to add libgpiod 
support for v1.6.3:

https://github.com/mesonbuild/wrapdb/pull/130

Meson overlays this reimplementation of the build system along side the 
source as shipped in the tag, enabling meson dependency management 
without any impact on the upstream project. However, as you might 
guess, the wrap implementation is non-trivial as it transliterates the 
autotools scripts. While maintenance of this approach doesn't require 
any work on your part, it does have to adapt as the autotools scripts 
change. As such:

How do you feel about switching from autotools to meson for the build 
system of libgpiod?

If this is something you're interested in we can rebase the work in the 
pull-request above on libgpiod master and have something that's mostly 
ready. If you're not interested, I can at least carry on maintaining 
the wrap, but I felt like it was worth asking the question :)

Interested in your thoughts!

Andrew

[1] https://www.openbmc.org/
[2] https://github.com/openbmc/openbmc/
[3] https://mesonbuild.com/
[4] https://mesonbuild.com/Subprojects.html
[5] https://mesonbuild.com/Wrap-dependency-system-manual.html
[6] https://mesonbuild.com/Wrapdb-projects.html