I'll answer the questions/comments here in the order they appeared in this thread:
1) We are lacking on a instruction guide on working with the new system, however I encourage you to read the doc/README.cmake_build file in WRF (admittedly this is missing in WPS). In an effort to reduce the documentation burden, only things that differ from official CMake documentation have been noted. Otherwise, for CMake-specific functionality we've referenced the CMake documentation.
2) The final output is installed to an install/ folder. From there, once inside that folder, the workflow is identical to the old system. For alternate control, please refer to the doc/README.cmake_build
3) Please refer to the CMake find_package()
documentation on providing most external packages, this could be added to the doc/README.cmake_build file. Finding of netCDF is simpler though and is noted within the readme.
4) As the new system is not yet the default (hence a distinction with *_new
) most existing documentation should still reference the old system. As we transition to the new build system, more info should be generated.
5) It most likely uses less memory since the build rules have been streamlined to only do necessary preprocessing. For instance, now not all files are run through standard.exe, C preprocessing, and multiple in situ rewrites with sed.
6) Running ./configure_new VERBOSE=true
will output the make commands similar to what is you see in the old make system. While there is a lot of extra directory and file bookkeeping that CMake does, this will also give you an idea of the difference in the compile command when comparing the analogous command from the old make system for the same file.