Problems with ALT_OUTPUTDIR in debug build

[Volker Simonis]

Ok, I think I can live with ALT_OUTPUTDIR=$(OUTPUTDIR)-$(DEBUG_NAME)
as well. This at least honours the original user setting of
ALT_OUTPUTDIR (though with a "-debug" suffix).

But it will create FOUR outputdirectories, if we say "make debug_build
 ALT_OUTPUTDIR=xxx" of which only "xxx-debug" will be used:

xxx
xxx-debug
xxx-debug-fastdebug
xxx-fastdebug

If we say "make fastdebug_build  ALT_OUTPUTDIR=xxx" if will create
THREE directories, of which only "xxx-fastdebug", will be used:

xxx
xxx-fastdebug
xxx-fastdebug-fastdebug

I still think this is quite confusing (especially
"xxx-debug-fastdebug" and "xxx-fastdebug-fastdebug" - what should they
be good for).

The main cause for this hassle is the setup rule in the top-level
Makefile (and the recursive invocation of this makefile for the
"debug" and "fasdebug" targets) :

setup:
       $(MKDIR) -p $(OUTPUTDIR)/j2sdk-image
       $(MKDIR) -p $(ABS_OUTPUTDIR)/j2sdk-image
       $(MKDIR) -p $(OUTPUTDIR)-fastdebug/j2sdk-image
       $(MKDIR) -p $(ABS_OUTPUTDIR)-fastdebug/j2sdk-image

I still don't understand why it is necessary, because if I remove all
the MKDIRs, (and with ALT_OUTPUTDIR=$(OUTPUTDIR)-$(DEBUG_NAME) as
suggested above), at least on my Linux box everything works fine:

"make debug_build  ALT_OUTPUTDIR=xxx" creates two directories and puts
the output to "xxx-debug":

xxx
xxx-debug

"make fastdebug_build  ALT_OUTPUTDIR=xxx" creates two directories and
puts the output to "xxx-fastdebug":

xxx
xxx-fastdebug

and "make all  ALT_OUTPUTDIR=xxx" creates just "xxx" and puts the output into.

This seams reasonable to me!

You wrote that the "MKDIRs" in the setup rules are only needed to
workaround a windows problem. I didn't built an Windows, but perhaps
somebody can try if they are still needed (Ted?). And if they will be
really needed, perhaps we can conditionally enable them on Windows
only, so we don't clutter the Unix build with usless directories?

Regards,
Volker

On 1/10/08, Kelly O'Hair <Kelly.Ohair at sun.com> wrote:
> ALT_OUTPUTDIR=$(OUTPUTDIR)
> doesn't make sense to me.
>
> The makefiles will define OUTPUTDIR to be equal to $(ALT_OUTPUTDIR) if
> ALT_OUTPUTDIR is set.
> The _OUTPUTDIR is the default build location, when ALT_OUTPUTDIR is not set.
>
> The original idea here in setting ALT_OUTPUTDIR=$(_OUTPUTDIR)-$(DEBUG_NAME)
> was to put all the results of a debug build in a completely different
> directory, which I still think is right.
> I suspect this needs to be:
>     ALT_OUTPUTDIR=$(OUTPUTDIR)-$(DEBUG_NAME)
>
> A long time ago, the debug files were built along side the normal files, and
> all debug files had that "_g" suffix (e.g. jvm_g.dll, etc.) but we completely
> got rid of that because it was a nightmare.
> The debug builds then just became a second pass over the source with the same
> makefiles but just a different output directory so they didn't mix.
> I'm afraid using ALT_OUTPUTDIR=$(OUTPUTDIR) will mix up the optimized files
> with the debug files, which won't be good.
>
> -kto
>
> Volker Simonis wrote:
> > I would suggest to fix the top-level  Makefile such that
> > COMMON_DEBUG_FLAGS uses $(OUTPUTDIR) instead of $(_OUTPUTDIR)
> > and doesn't append "-$(DEBUG_NAME)" to ALT_OUTPUTDIR like so:
> >
> > COMMON_DEBUG_FLAGS= \
> >         DEBUG_NAME=$(DEBUG_NAME) \
> >         ALT_OUTPUTDIR=$(OUTPUTDIR) \
> >         NO_DOCS=true
> >
> > We will than always end up with two directories like so:
> >
> > xxx
> > xxx-fastdebug
> >
> > if we used "ALT_OUTPUTDIR=xxx".
> >
> > "xxx-fastdebug" will always be empty (but needed if I follow your
> > previous post) so we can remove it after the build. But the user will
> > get the output in the directory he specified with ALT_OUTPUTDIR and
> > that seems crucial to me.
> >
> > What do you think?
> >
> > Volker
> >
> > On 1/10/08, Kelly O'Hair <Kelly.Ohair at sun.com> wrote:
> >> Your final paragraph I think is the answer:
> >>
> >>    "In my eyes, the cleanest solution would be if ALT_OUTPUTDIR would be honoured
> >>     "as is", as the output directory for everything we built, without anything
> >>     appended to it. So the developer should be free to choose whatever he wants as
> >>     the output directory. And there should be no additional directories created."
> >>
> >> The ongoing problem has been how to make this work in all cases.
> >> But I'm all for it.
> >>
> >> The generally accepted default for an output directory has been a ./build or
> >> ./dist directory at the top of the source tree you are building.
> >> With corba, jaxp, jaxws, langtools, hotspot all being independently buildable,
> >> what exactly are you recommending to fix this?
> >>
> >> -kto
> >>
> >> Volker Simonis wrote:
> >>>>> Any comments if this is the right way to do a debug build?
> >>>> If it works it's fine. I usually just run 'make debug_build', does that not work?
> >>>>
> >>> It works, but it has the problems that I detailed in my first mail.
> >>> Did you also read that one?
> >>> I may seem that my second mail contained the solution for the first
> >>> one, but that's not true, its justa partial workaround for the problem
> >>> described in the first one:
> >>>
> >>> http://mail.openjdk.java.net/pipermail/build-dev/2008-January/000669.html
> >>>
> >>> Thanks and regards,
> >>> Volker
>