[Mesa-dev] [RFC] Convert mesa to automake/libtool

[Jesse Barnes]

On Mon, 03 May 2010 14:49:09 -0700
Ian Romanick <idr at freedesktop.org> wrote:

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> Brian Paul wrote:
> 
> > The libtool script wrapped every cc command and it slowed the build
> > process considerably.  Have you done any "before/after" build time
> > comparisons?  I build a *lot*.
> 
> This was traditionally the #1 complaint about autotools.  Over the
> years a few iterations of fixes to this problem have percolated
> through the autotools community.  Josh Triplett's dolt is one.  My
> vague understanding is that the autotools maintainers have
> incorporated most of this directly into libtool.  As far as I'm
> aware, the build time of a modern libtool project is within a
> standard deviation or two of a non-libtool project.
> 
> Being able to trivially throw more CPUs at the compile has more than
> made up for the added overhead.  distcc is the big win there... and
> working at a company that makes CPUs.  :)

One thing that hasn't been mentioned (the wrapping made me think of
it): shave.

It's absolutely great to have your compile flags hidden by default so
you can see warnings and errors more easily.  Most of the time you want
to debug your code, not your build system.  We could do that in the
current system, but with autotools we'll get it right away.

Jesse