[bug] LIB_DIRS from a meson package and cmake_find_package grenerator does not match

[hstejas]

Environment Details (include every applicable attribute)

• Operating System+version: Ubuntu 21.10
• Compiler+version: gcc-11
• Conan version: 1.46
• Python version: 3.9.7

Steps to reproduce (Include if Applicable)

Similar to #10705

• Create a new project with conan new abc/v1 --template=meson_lib (some changes were done to adapt to existing code)
• conan create .
• In a different project i have a conanfile.txt with

[requires]
abc/v1
[generators]
cmake_find_package

Logs (Executed commands with output) (Include/Attach if Applicable)

The meson pacage is installed in some path similar to ~/.conan/.../lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/ but the generated Findabc.cmake has set(abc_LIB_DIRS ".../.conan/data/.../package/fa9464e97e40f8d42250528fd396f66f62b6a0b2/lib").

x86_64-linux-gnu seems to be missing

[memsharded]

Hi @hstejas

The way to consume it would be irrelevant. The important point is that the library, once the package is created should be in lib/hellolib.a or something like that, if it was created correctly. No x86_64-linux-gnu folder.

I have just tested it in Windows, seems to be fine.
Can you please retry with the conan new hello/0.1 -m=meson_lib without any modifications to the recipe? If it works fine, then please report the changes you did to the recipe, providing a copy we could reproduce. Thanks!

[hstejas]

Hello @memsharded

More specifically I was just trying this out with libvips, and I noticed this in their readme

You might need to add --libdir=lib on Debian if you don't want the arch name in the library path.

I don't know enough about meson to comment if this is a standard practice.

I also noticed this,

conan/conan/tools/meson/toolchain.py

Line 196 in ae66343

# TODO : we don't manage paths like libdir here (yet?)

So this is currently not possible?

[memsharded]

Hi @hstejas

I am not sure what is happening. I have just tried with conan new hello/0.1 -m=meson_lib in Conan 1.46 in an Ubuntu 19 system, and it is not creating the x86_64-linux-gnu folder, but the lib is is in lib/libhello.a directly.
The template, the meson.build is using the install_dir: 'lib', so this is working fine, maybe you are removing that in your meson.build file?

[SSE4]

might be related: #9713

[hstejas]

@memsharded
As i had mentioned it is an existing project.
Seems like install_dir is not there
source:
https://github.com/libvips/libvips/blob/168d7652c21440edf8c2e3bd27428ec2891685bf/libvips/meson.build#L21
And I think i am checking the correct file

[memsharded]

I see. So then the possible approaches could be:

• Have the recipe patch the library meson.build file to define the install_dir. You can patch in source() method, after getting the sources. ConanCenter recipes have many examples of patches and how to define them in conandata.yml.
• Do a file move in the package() method, to get rid of the x86_64-linux-gnu folder, moving the libs from there to plain "lib"
• Do not use the meson.install() but use a bare copy(self, ....) inside package()
• Parameterize the package_info() method to reflect this. This might be the less recommended one, doesn't seem an elegant solution.

I think I would try first the 2nd and 3rd approaches, with the package() method, might be a bit simpler than applying the patch.

In any case, it doesn't seem so far this is a Conan bug. Meson is doing something and deciding to put some files in a different folder depending on the system. Conan recipes have different ways to deal with that, but nothing that it could do automagically.

[hstejas]

Thanks for the reply,
I will maybe try one of them. Ill close this since nothing can be one in conan.