Merge pull request #3643 from mesonbuild/nirbheek/check_header

New compiler method: check_header

2 files changed, 25 insertions, 3 deletions

diff --git a/docs/markdown/Reference-manual.md b/docs/markdown/Reference-manual.md
index 9948017..e29f4d9 100644
--- a/docs/markdown/Reference-manual.md
+++ b/docs/markdown/Reference-manual.md
@@ -1567,8 +1567,18 @@ the following methods:
   `args` keyword, you can specify external dependencies to use with
   `dependencies` keyword argument.
 
-- `has_header` returns true if the specified header can be included,
-  you can specify external dependencies to use with `dependencies`
+- `check_header` returns true if the specified header is *usable* with
+  the specified prefix, dependencies, and arguments.
+  You can specify external dependencies to use with `dependencies`
+  keyword argument and extra code to put above the header test with
+  the `prefix` keyword. In order to look for headers in a specific
+  directory you can use `args : '-I/extra/include/dir`, but this
+  should only be used in exceptional cases for includes that can't be
+  detected via pkg-config and passed via `dependencies`.
+
+- `has_header` returns true if the specified header *exists*, and is
+  faster than `check_header()` since it only does a pre-processor check.
+  You can specify external dependencies to use with `dependencies`
   keyword argument and extra code to put above the header test with
   the `prefix` keyword. In order to look for headers in a specific
   directory you can use `args : '-I/extra/include/dir`, but this
@@ -1651,7 +1661,7 @@ The following keyword arguments can be used:
   some symbols to be exposed on Linux, and it should be passed via
   `args` keyword argument, see below). Supported by the methods
   `sizeof`, `has_type`, `has_function`, `has_member`, `has_members`,
-  `has_header_symbol`.
+  `check_header`, `has_header`, `has_header_symbol`.
 
 **Note:** These compiler checks do not use compiler arguments added with 
 `add_*_arguments()`, via `-Dlang_args` on the command-line, or through
diff --git a/docs/markdown/snippets/compiler_check_header.md b/docs/markdown/snippets/compiler_check_header.md
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..8981d13
--- /dev/null
+++ b/docs/markdown/snippets/compiler_check_header.md
@@ -0,0 +1,12 @@
+## New compiler check: check_header()
+
+The existing compiler check `has_header()` only checks if the header exists,
+either with the `__has_include` C++11 builtin, or by running the pre-processor.
+
+However, sometimes the header you are looking for is unusable on some platforms
+or with some compilers in a way that is only detectable at compile-time. For
+such cases, you should use `check_header()` which will include the header and
+run a full compile.
+
+Note that `has_header()` is much faster than `check_header()`, so it should be
+used whenever possible.