Choosing a new build system for Samba

[Andreas Schneider]

On Friday 19 March 2010 15:25:40 Stefan (metze) Metzmacher wrote:
> > What are the benefits of a new build system?
> > --------------------------------------------
> > 
> > The reason we hack Samba is to improve it, and while change is hard, it
> > also brings new opportunities.  I would like to see a little more
> > written about what a new build system would allow.  (I know I've heard a
> > lot about waf in private conversations, but that's not a good way for us
> > all to hear).
> > 
> > In particular, I would like to hear about how any new system would make
> > it easier to merge code between Samba3 and Samba4, and make the merged
> > build less special.
> 
> I think a new build system needs to support automatic dependencies
> (while making the build still be 100% reliable).
> 
> => 'make clean' should be history. We have (at least I had) wasted
>    so many time waiting for a rebuild or debugging segfaults
>    because if inconsistent builds.
> 
> Then we'll have much less overhead in making the merged build the
> default. And we'll have more time working on real code.

What we should support is a complete out of source build. This means I can 
create a directory for each branch I have and compile Samba in it. If I switch 
a branch I can compile it in a different directory.
So I have different Samba builds and can run tests against it without 
recompiling it and have several complete source directories.

I think this needs changes in the testing infrastructure before this can be 
supported.

Cheers,


	-- andreas