I'm probably responsible for those Fennec build files (if they were
correct, it would have been blassey).
In any case, we probably did 'sneak' things past build peers. Not
intentionally, of course.
We were more worried about getting a product into the marketplace that
didn't suck than the correctness of our make files. We cut corners, and
we'd probably do it again given the circumstances.
Thanks for cleaning up our mess!
Gregory Szorc wrote:
Traditionally, it's been very difficult for the build peers to keep on
top of changes in the build config because changes are occurring on bug
components we don't follow, are touching files all over the tree, and
because build peers aren't always asked for review.
The potential for "sneaking" things past build peer review has resulted
in a number of self-inflicted wounds, the Fennec build rules probably
being the best example (the dependencies are all wrong and no-op builds
take ~16s when they should take 1 or 2s).
This history contributed to us implementing a more strict "sandbox" in
moz.build files: take away as many footguns as possible and there will
be less self-inflicted wounds.
Unfortunately, the moz.build conversion isn't finished and it will drag
on for a while. There will still be Makefile.in in the tree and that
leaves the door open for new badness.
I would like to reinforce the existing policy: *if you are changing a
Makefile.in, please ask a build peer for review unless the change is
just adding or removing to an existing list.*
For the most part, people have been abiding by this policy. However,
things are still creeping through. Unfortunately, some of them wouldn't
get r+ from a build peer.
Since new Makefile.in badness makes people's lives harder (especially
when it makes the build slower), I would like to propose a more strict
policy around Makefile.in changes: *if a non-list change in a
Makefile.in isn't reviewed by a build peer, it doesn't land or gets
backed out.* This could potentially be enforced with repository push hooks.
I /think/ this proposal is supported by our module governance system
since Makefile.in are the purview of the build config module. But I
wanted to run the proposal by people to make sure it is generally
well-received and there aren't any major concerns.
Gregory
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