DependsAndAliases

When you use Depends() like this:

tgt = env.Command(...)
env.Depends(tgt, 'SomeAlias')

anothertgt = env.Command(...)
env.Alias('SomeAlias', anothertgt)

it most likely won't work like you expect it to. The string 'SomeAlias' in this example is assumed to be the name of a sub-directory in the current directory, e.g. you will get an error saying that scons doesn't know how to build 'currdir\SomeAlias'.

On the other hand, if 'SomeAlias' is defined prior to the Depends() being executed, then all works as expected:

anothertgt = env.Command(...)
env.Alias('SomeAlias', anothertgt)

tgt = env.Command(...)
localenv.Depends(tgt, 'SomeAlias')

the target tgt will depend on the target 'anothertgt'.

The problem is that this fact (apparently) forces you to order your calls to Alias() and Depends() based on the dependency order. Not a good thing.

The solution is to not use a naked string in the Depends, if you expect it to be an Alias:

tgt = env.Command(...)
env.Depends(tgt, env.Alias('SomeAlias'))

anothertgt = env.Command(...)
env.Alias('SomeAlias', anothertgt)

As Anthony Roach (who proposed the solution) says:

"That tells SCons that SomeAlias is an alias, even if the alias definition hasn't been seen yet."

Perfect!

Now there's a twist to this if you happen to use env.Clone(). For example, if you have an sconscript that looks like this:

Import('env')
localenv = env.Clone()
tgt = localenv.Command(...)
localenv.Depends(tgt, localenv.Alias('SomeAlias'))

you might get a warning that 'SomeAlias' is defined in two environments. In this case, in the current local copy and in the environment where 'SomeAlias' is previously (or in future) defined. In my system, I got around this by putting all the aliases in one environment, like so:

Import('env')
localenv = env.Clone()
tgt = localenv.Command(...)
localenv.Depends(tgt, env.Alias('utx'))
localenv.Depends(tgt, env.Alias('SimpleXml'))