External program (external_program)

Opaque object representing an external program

Returned by

External program objects are returned by the following functions and methods:

• find_program()

External program methods

external_program.found()

Returns whether the executable was found.

bool found()

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external_program.full_path()

Returns a string pointing to the script or executable.

NOTE: You should not usually need to use this method. Passing the object itself should work in most contexts where a program can appear, and allows Meson to setup inter-target dependencies correctly (for example in cases where a program might be overridden by a build_tgt). Only use this if you specifically need a string, such as when embedding a program path into a header file, or storing it into an environment variable.

For example:

run_command(find_program('foo'), 'arg1', 'arg2')

str full_path()

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external_program.path()

Deprecated: Use external_program.full_path() instead.

Returns a string pointing to the script or executable.

NOTE: You should not usually need to use this method. Passing the object itself should work in most contexts where a program can appear, and allows Meson to setup inter-target dependencies correctly (for example in cases where a program might be overridden by a build_tgt). Only use this if you specifically need a string, such as when embedding a program path into a header file, or storing it into an environment variable.

For example:

run_command(find_program('foo'), 'arg1', 'arg2')

str path()

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external_program.version()

The version number as a string, for example 1.2.8.

unknown if the program cannot determine the version via a --version argument.

str version()

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