Document search path behavior

Signed-off-by: Cristian Le <[email protected]>

Author: LecrisUT

docs/cmakelists.md

@@ -76,15 +76,13 @@ succeed.
 
 ## Finding other packages
 
-Scikit-build-core includes the site-packages directory in CMake's search path,
-so packages can provide a find package config with a name matching the package
-name - such as the `pybind11` package.
-
-Third party packages can declare entry-points `cmake.module` and `cmake.prefix`,
-and the specified module will be added to `CMAKE_PREFIX_PATH` and
-`CMAKE_MODULE_PATH`, respectively. Currently, the key is not used, but
-eventually there might be a way to request or exclude certain entry-points by
-key.
+Scikit-build-core includes various pythonic paths to the CMake search paths by
+default so that usually you only need to include the dependent project inside
+the `build-system.requires` section. Note that `cmake` and `ninja` should not
+be included in that section.
+
+See [search paths section](search_paths.md) for more details on how the search
+paths are constructed and how to override them.
 
 ## Install directories
 

docs/index.md

@@ -32,6 +32,7 @@ getting_started
 configuration
 overrides
 cmakelists
+search_paths
 crosscompile
 migration_guide
 build

docs/search_paths.md

@@ -0,0 +1,252 @@
+# Search paths
+
+Scikit-build-core populates CMake search paths to take into account any other
+CMake project installed in the same environment.
+
+## `<PackageName>_ROOT`
+
+This is the most recommended interface to be used for importing dependent
+packages using `find_package`. This variable is populated by the dependent
+project's entry-point `cmake.root` or by the current project's `search.roots`
+option, the latter having a higher priority.
+
+To configure the `cmake.root` entry-point to export to other projects, you
+can use the CMake standard install paths in you `CMakeLists.txt` if you use
+`wheel.install-dir` option, e.g.
+
+```{code-block} cmake
+:caption: CMakeLists.txt
+:emphasize-lines: 14-16
+
+include(CMakePackageConfigHelpers)
+include(GNUInstallDirs)
+write_basic_package_version_file(
+    MyProjectConfigVersion.cmake
+    VERSION ${PROJECT_VERSION}
+    COMPATIBILITY SameMajorVersion
+)
+configure_package_config_file(
+    cmake/MyProjectConfig.cmake.in
+    MyProjectConfig.cmake
+    INSTALL_DESTINATION ${CMAKE_INSTALL_LIBDIR}/cmake/MyProject
+)
+install(FILES
+    ${CMAKE_CURRENT_BINARY_DIR}/MyProjectConfigVersion.cmake
+    ${CMAKE_CURRENT_BINARY_DIR}/MyProjectConfig.cmake
+    DESTINATION ${CMAKE_INSTALL_LIBDIR}/cmake/MyProject
+)
+```
+```{code-block} toml
+:caption: pyproject.toml
+:emphasize-lines: 2,5
+
+[tool.scikit-build]
+wheel.install-dir = "myproject"
+
+[project.entry-points."cmake.root"]
+MyProject = "myproject"
+```
+
+:::{note}
+
+Scikit-build-core does not currently support dynamic entry-points population.
+
+:::
+
+With this any consuming project that depends on this would automatically work
+with `find_package(MyProject)` as long as it is in the `build-system.requires`
+list.
+
+You can use `search.roots` to override or extend these variables, e.g. you can
+delete the `MyProject_ROOT` variable by setting
+
+````{tab} pyproject.toml
+
+```toml
+[tool.scikit-build.search.roots]
+MyProject = ""
+```
+
+````
+
+`````{tab} config-settings
+
+
+````{tab} pip
+
+```console
+$ pip install . -v --config-settings=search.roots.MyProject=""
+```
+
+````
+
+````{tab} build
+
+```console
+$ pipx run build --wheel -Csearch.roots.MyProject=""
+```
+
+````
+
+````{tab} cibuildwheel
+
+```toml
+[tool.cibuildwheel.config-settings]
+"search.roots.MyProject" = ""
+```
+
+````
+
+`````
+
+````{tab} Environment
+
+
+```yaml
+SKBUILD_SEARCH_ROOTS_MyProject: ""
+```
+
+````
+
+Or you could point to another preferred path:
+
+
+````{tab} pyproject.toml
+
+```toml
+[tool.scikit-build.search.roots]
+MyProject = "other_project"
+```
+
+````
+
+`````{tab} config-settings
+
+
+````{tab} pip
+
+```console
+$ pip install . -v --config-settings=search.roots.MyProject="other_project"
+```
+
+````
+
+````{tab} build
+
+```console
+$ pipx run build --wheel -Csearch.roots.MyProject="other_project"
+```
+
+````
+
+````{tab} cibuildwheel
+
+```toml
+[tool.cibuildwheel.config-settings]
+"search.roots.MyProject" = "other_project"
+```
+
+````
+
+`````
+
+````{tab} Environment
+
+
+```yaml
+SKBUILD_SEARCH_ROOTS_MyProject: "other_project"
+```
+
+````
+
+## `CMAKE_PREFIX_PATH`
+
+Another common search path that scikit-build-core populates is the
+`CMAKE_PREFIX_PATH` which is a common catch-all for all CMake search paths,
+e.g. `find_package`, `find_program`, `find_path`. This is populated by default
+with the install and build path's `site-packages` folder, but this can be
+disabled by setting
+
+```toml
+[tool.scikit-build.search]
+search.use-install-prefix = false
+search.use-build-prefix = false
+```
+
+Additionally, scikit-build-core reads the entry-point `cmake.prefix` and the
+option `search.prefixes` to prepend to this path list. You can similarly export
+this as
+
+``` toml
+[project.entry-points."cmake.prefix"]
+MyProject = "myproject"
+```
+
+and you can similarly delete this entry-point variable
+
+````{tab} pyproject.toml
+
+```toml
+[tool.scikit-build.search.prefixes]
+MyProject = ""
+```
+
+````
+
+`````{tab} config-settings
+
+
+````{tab} pip
+
+```console
+$ pip install . -v --config-settings=search.prefixes.MyProject=""
+```
+
+````
+
+````{tab} build
+
+```console
+$ pipx run build --wheel -Csearch.prefixes.MyProject=""
+```
+
+````
+
+````{tab} cibuildwheel
+
+```toml
+[tool.cibuildwheel.config-settings]
+"search.prefixes.MyProject" = ""
+```
+
+````
+
+`````
+
+````{tab} Environment
+
+
+```yaml
+SKBUILD_SEARCH_PREFIXES_MyProject: ""
+```
+
+````
+
+If you only wish to expand the prefix path, you can also define
+`search.prefixes` as a list
+
+```toml
+[tool.scikit-build.search]
+prefixes = ["/path/to/prefixA", "/path/to/prefixB"]
+```
+
+## `CMAKE_MODULE_PATH`
+
+Scikit-build-core also populates `CMAKE_MODULE_PATH` variable used to search
+for CMake modules using the `include()` command (if the `.cmake` suffix is
+omitted).
+
+This variable is populated from the entry-point `cmake.module` and the option
+`search.modules` similar to [`CMAKE_PREFIX_PATH`] section.
+
+[`CMAKE_PREFIX_PATH`]: #cmake-prefix-path