add install_symlink function

Allows installing symlinks directly from meson, which can
become useful in multiple scenarios. Current main use is to
help moving forward #9557

2 files changed, 45 insertions, 0 deletions

diff --git a/docs/markdown/snippets/install_symlink.md b/docs/markdown/snippets/install_symlink.md
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..752c422
--- /dev/null
+++ b/docs/markdown/snippets/install_symlink.md
@@ -0,0 +1,11 @@
+## install_symlink function
+
+It is now possible to request for symbolic links to be installed during
+installation. The `install_symlink` function takes a positional argument to
+the link name, and installs a symbolic link pointing to `pointing_to` target.
+The link will be created under `install_dir` directory and cannot contain path
+separators.
+
+```meson
+install_symlink('target', pointing_to: '../bin/target', install_dir: '/usr/sbin')
+```
diff --git a/docs/yaml/functions/install_symlink.yaml b/docs/yaml/functions/install_symlink.yaml
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..d9f0de6
--- /dev/null
+++ b/docs/yaml/functions/install_symlink.yaml
@@ -0,0 +1,34 @@
+name: install_symlink
+returns: void
+since: 0.61.0
+description: |
+  Installs a symbolic link to `pointing_to` target under install_dir.
+
+posargs:
+  link_name:
+    type: str
+    description: |
+      Name of the created link under `install_dir`.
+      It cannot contain path separators. Those should go in `install_dir`.
+
+kwargs:
+  pointing_to:
+    type: str
+    required: true
+    description: |
+      Target to point the link to.
+      Can be absolute or relative and that will be respected when creating the link.
+
+  install_dir:
+    type: str
+    required: true
+    description: |
+      The absolute or relative path to the installation directory for the links.
+      If this is a relative path, it is assumed to be relative to the prefix.
+
+  install_tag:
+    type: str
+    description: |
+      A string used by the `meson install --tags` command
+      to install only a subset of the files. By default these files have no install
+      tag which means they are not being installed when `--tags` argument is specified.