Missing webrev features ( was Re: RFR: JDK-8027836 Webrev script breaks for files that has been moved from a directory which now is also removed)

[Magnus Ihse Bursie]

On 2013-11-08 16:54, Jonathan Gibbons wrote:
> On 11/08/2013 12:22 AM, Magnus Ihse Bursie wrote:
>> If we can achieve both the goal of moving the webrev script away from 
>> being tied to a specific jdk repo, and still let everyone keep their 
>> scripts/command lines/etc intact, I can't see the harm in that. It's 
>> no big deal forcing people to clone yet another repo to use webrev, 
>> but on the other hand, it's no big deal to make this change 
>> completely transparant as well -- and then I'd prefer the latter.
>
>
> I have no problem with another code-tools repo, but it does raise the 
> question of how folk should get tools provided in the such repos. I 
> presume you would not suggest that if someone wants to use jtreg, some 
> script should automagically download and build jtreg. What about 
> jcheck?  If someone wants to use jcheck locally, should the OpenJDK 
> forest provide a script to download and install jcheck somewhere?

Actually, why could you not have a script to download and build jtreg? I 
get the feeling you want to provide a reductio ad absurdum, but for me, 
that is not absurd. In fact, that is the direction the new build system 
has been going all the time. Providing a configure step, which finds 
what is available, and suggests command lines for getting what is 
missing, is the first step. Further along, we still want to provide the 
"build deps" solution -- where the tools needed to build the JDK can be 
automatically downloaded and installed. Sure, this is not trivial 
(that's why it's not implemented yet), but that does not mean it's not a 
worthy goal.

If we had an existing build-deps infrastructure, it would be a 
no-brainer to add webrev (or jtreg) to it. But we do not have it, yet. 
So, does that mean we should not try to download anything, or should we 
try some tools without have a solution for everything. I'd vote for the 
latter.

/Magnus