nasa/fprime

Catch uninitialized submodules and libraries in build system

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#5,054 opened on Apr 23, 2026

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Easy First Issuecmakehelp wanted

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Description
F´ Version
Affected Component

Feature Description

Users are often caught off-guard when cloning a project and submodules aren't initialized recursively. We have fprime-bootstrap clone to alleviate that, but still.

We could potentially catch these setups that have empty libraries / submodules, and throw warnings. Either in fprime-util, or preferably in CMake

Contributor guide

Research direction
Investigate how to detect uninitialized submodules and empty libraries in the CMake build system and add a check or warning.
Tech stack
cpp
Domain
build system
Issue type
Feature
DifficultyEstimated implementation difficulty for a new contributor, from 1 for very small changes to 5 for expert-level work.
2
Estimated timeA rough time range for an experienced contributor to investigate, implement, test, and prepare a pull request.
1-3 hours
Activity statusHow available the issue appears right now: fresh, active, stale, blocked, or waiting on maintainer input.
Active
ClarityHow clearly the issue explains the expected change, acceptance criteria, and next step.
Mostly clear
Prerequisites
Git
Newbie friendlinessA 1-100 score estimating how approachable this issue is for first-time contributors.
75