RFE: Proposed changes to .hgignore

[Dr Andrew John Hughes]

On 28 July 2010 22:26, Deepak Bhole <dbhole at redhat.com> wrote:
> * Dr Andrew John Hughes <ahughes at redhat.com> [2010-07-28 17:17]:
>> On 28 July 2010 21:18, Deepak Bhole <dbhole at redhat.com> wrote:
>> > Hi,
>> >
>> > In light of the recent changes to the build system, I was wondering if
>> > anyone had nay issues with the attached changes to .hgignore?
>> >
>> > Thanks,
>> > Deepak
>> >
>>
>> I'd much rather it looked like the IcedTea7 version:
>>
>> syntax: glob
>> *~
>> configure
>> missing
>> aclocal.m4
>> autom4te.cache
>> config.guess
>> config.sub
>> config.status
>> install-sh
>> Makefile.in
>>
>> The kind of changes you propose go further towards hiding a dirty
>> source tree and have, in my experience, hidden files that need to be
>> added.
>>
>
> Ah okay. I don't mind a dirty source tree. I just thought that we were
> in fact trying to hide it, given that autotools generated items were
> being ignored.
>

It's pretty common to hide the autotools stuff as it has to be in the
source directory even when building elsewhere.
Both Classpath & IcedTea7 do this and I don't see a problem with it as
it is rare that you remove the configure script.

The IcedTea6 one seems to include a lot of additional stuff that is
only generated by actually performing a build.  Moreover, in the past
these have been done in a way that means they apply to material that
does need to be added.  If you look at some of my recent work on the
release branches, I had to edit hgignore because it was hiding files
being added to the overlays directory (because it was matching
'openjdk' anywhere in the path).

I can see the motivation for adding everything that is built to the
file, for those building in-tree, but there is a danger to it.  You
then accumulate cruft in the source tree which may no longer be
generated by new builds and which may cause problems in its own right.

> If that is not the case, please disregard the patch.
>

I'd rather we actually cleaned out most of what is already there,
rather than adding more.  However, I think we should hear the thoughts
of others first, before taking more action.

> Cheers,
> Deepak
>
>> If you don't want these files to show up in hg status, then we have an
>> option that solves that.  It's called 'make clean'.
>> --
>> Andrew :-)
>>
>> Free Java Software Engineer
>> Red Hat, Inc. (http://www.redhat.com)
>>
>> Support Free Java!
>> Contribute to GNU Classpath and the OpenJDK
>> http://www.gnu.org/software/classpath
>> http://openjdk.java.net
>>
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>



-- 
Andrew :-)

Free Java Software Engineer
Red Hat, Inc. (http://www.redhat.com)

Support Free Java!
Contribute to GNU Classpath and the OpenJDK
http://www.gnu.org/software/classpath
http://openjdk.java.net

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Fingerprint: F8EF F1EA 401E 2E60 15FA  7927 142C 2591 94EF D9D8