xserver build failling AFTER it works ??

[Daniel Stone]

On Sun, Jul 13, 2008 at 10:51:55AM -0400, Chuck Robey wrote:
> Peter Hutterer wrote:
> > my point was that you only ever need to use build.sh once, and then you just
> > make && make install the components you modify.
> 
> Maybe it's because of my usually extreme allergy to doing things that use the
> auto-tools (like, rebuilding the Makefiles, running autogen.sh) ... if I do a
> git-clean of a make distclean, it ends up requiring a re-gen of Makefiles, and I
> don't understand the required variables (if you just run autogen.sh bare, it
> screws up, I tried it several times).

Yeah, it sucks that that can happen on a make clean.  If you want to
avoid this, pass --disable-maintainer-mode, but that means that you'll
have to re-run autogen.sh every time you change configure.ac or a
Makefile.  The default from the git tree (not sure if it is in the
tarballs or not) is to rebuild these things _automatically_, which can
cause annoying spurious builds or distclean failure.

OTOH, it prevents the million annoying situations where you forget to
run autogen.sh after you change the build system, and wonder why it
isn't working, so. :)

> The comment about it being "no official script other than build.sh" strikes me
> as funny ... something like asking a bank robber if they like stealing, and
> having them answer "no, of course not ... well, excepting this robbery, of
> course".  That's somewhat of an extreme simile, sorry, it's the only one that
> ocurred to me at the moment.  I am talking about replacing build.sh, so saying
> "we don't do that, except for build.sh" is just a bit on the droll side.  I
> mean, I'm /talking/ /about/ replacing build.sh with a far better tool, one that
> would be far simpler to fix if it got broken, and be able to do it without
> making a single change in your modularization strategy..

As I've said, we'd certainly welcome and evaluate any patch.  No-one
ever said we wouldn't: in fact, as we've repeatedly said, it's entirely
the opposite.

We make sure build.sh always works.  Just because we don't say everyone
should use it in every situation doesn't mean that we don't ensure it
works, although not always optimally, because continuous rebuilding
outside a distribution situation (where you have other tools to do this)
is not something we optimise for.

> I said I couldn't do it without getting a question or two answered about th
> auto-tools part of the build, so both for that reason, and because I just
> couldn't get myself to commit to your project without some approval, maybe I'll
> just keep it private.  I'm going to have to wait until I see the answer to my
> questions on these lists anyhow, and I figure that'll be a longish wait.  I'll
> drop the topic, sorry.

Which questions in particular? If there've been any autotools questions
I've missed, it's not because I'm ignoring them.  Somewhat culpable as I
am, I try to make sure that I'm not neglecting it.

Cheers,
Daniel
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