SCons

Warnings

• breaking SCons 4.9.0 dropped support for Python 3.6. Python 3.7 or higher is now required.
  Fix: Ensure your Python environment is version 3.7 or newer. Upgrade Python if necessary.
• breaking The `env.Dump()` method's API changed in SCons 4.8.1. It now accepts multiple optional 'key' arguments instead of a single one. Scripts relying on the old single-key behavior may need adjustment.
  Fix: Update calls to `env.Dump()` to pass multiple keys as separate arguments or adapt to the new behavior if only a single key was expected.
• gotcha SCons construction environments (created with `Environment()`) do not automatically inherit the full external `PATH` or other environment variables from the shell that invoked `scons`. This can lead to issues where compilers or tools are not found.
  Fix: Explicitly pass required environment variables to the `Environment()` constructor, e.g., `env = Environment(ENV=os.environ)` to inherit all, or `env = Environment(ENV={'PATH': os.environ['PATH']})` for specific ones.
• gotcha SCons typically expects an `SConstruct` file in the current working directory. If not found, it will report 'No SConstruct file found'.
  Fix: Run `scons` from the directory containing `SConstruct`, or use options like `-u` (search up directory tree) or `-f FILE` (specify SConstruct file path) if invoking from a subdirectory.
• gotcha SCons 4.10.1 switched its internal test framework from `profile` to `cProfile` to avoid deprecation warnings introduced in Python 3.15. Older SCons versions might emit warnings if used with Python 3.15+.
  Fix: Upgrade to SCons 4.10.1 or newer to avoid `profile` module deprecation warnings.
• gotcha As of SCons 4.10.0, Nodes are treated as `PathLike` objects. This change may affect scripts that explicitly expected string paths when interacting with SCons Nodes.
  Fix: Review existing build scripts that process SCons Node objects, especially if they perform strict type checking or rely on string-specific path manipulations. Convert Nodes to strings explicitly if needed (e.g., `str(node)`).

Install

• pip install scons Install SCons via pip

Imports

• Environment

  env = Environment()

  SCons build functions like `Environment`, `Program`, `Library`, etc., are implicitly made available in the global namespace of `SConstruct` and `SConscript` files. Explicit `import` statements for these core functions are generally not needed or used in typical build scripts. Standard Python modules like `os` can be imported as usual.

Quickstart

Create an `SConstruct` file and a source file (e.g., `hello.c`) in the same directory. The `Environment()` function creates a build environment, and `env.Program()` defines a program target. Run `scons` from your terminal in the project's root directory to build the target.

# SConstruct file
env = Environment()
env.Program('hello.c')

# hello.c file
#include <stdio.h>

int main() {
    printf("Hello, SCons!\n");
    return 0;
}

# To build, run in terminal:
# scons
# To clean, run in terminal:
# scons -c