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The build system


From: Jordi Gutiérrez Hermoso
Subject: The build system
Date: Wed, 7 Jul 2010 23:48:07 -0500

I've always balked at autotools and have never managed to understand
it, despite a few half-hearted attempts. Today as I was using it to
develop on Octave I noticed that if I touched src/load-path.cc a
*massive* recompilation would take place. I understand if one source
file needs to be rebuilt and several libraries need to be relinked,
but this was much more than that. It would rebuild many other source
files, which I find quite baffling, since I didn't touch a header nor
a file that was included by many others, as far as I could tell.
Whence the recompilation then? Is it really necessary or am I failing
again to understand autotools?

I wish we could use something else to build Octave, but I'm not sure
anything else can also handle the chore of compiling Octave. I know
autotools solves a problem that no other build system solves, namely,
maximum *nix portability. So before I go on another wild goose chase,
why does this happen? Is there a way to speed up development and avoid
large recompilations when touching just one source file?

Thanks,
- Jordi G. H.


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