[cfe-dev] [libcxx] build system questions

[sashan]

> >>> On the dependency-checking issue: A The build time is currently about
> >>     a minute.
> >>> Imho this does not rise to the level of needing dependency checking to
> >>     speed
> >>> things up. A That being said, if someone wants to add dependency
> >>     checking and
> >>> it /does/ result in a speedup, I'd welcome it. A One requirement:
> >>     A The list of
> >>> headers and sources must be implicit. A I dislike explicit lists
> >>     because they
> >>> seem to me a continual source of errors.
> >> 
> >>     Yeah I can look into this. What are your thoughts on using
> >>     autoconf/automake for this?
> >>     The 'parent' projects clang and llvm use them.
> >> 
> >>   For reference, they don't use automake, and autoconf is one of the most
> >>   painful constructs ever devised in the realm of build systems. I would
> >>   want evidence of a very large problem indeed before solving it with
> >>   autoconf, and there doesn't seem to be one currently.
> > 
> > I don't really care for the autotools stuff either. I suggested it because it
> > was in use by the parent projects and it's widely used in other projects.
> 
> As soon as things get either expensive to build, or complicated to configure,
> I'm going to rebel.  But if things stay fast and simple, I'm ok.  I'd much
> rather have fast, simple and primitive, than slow, complicated and complex.
> 
> I think we should start out with a simple question:  What problem are we
> attempting to solve?
> 
> -Howard
> 

I pretty much agree with those sentiments regarding the build system. The
problem, and it's a minor one in this case since the build time is small, for me
was the lack of dependency checking that resulted in files being compiled
unnecessarily. I guess I found it surprising that it was using a shell script to
build.  However, on the grand scale of problems where a score of 10 is a zombie
apocalypse and 1 is not worth waking up for, I'd give this issue a 3.

I could look into sorting something out using make or cmake. Those are lighter
than autotools and I do think having dependency checking under the conditions
you stipulated previously would be an overall win, albeit small.