1452690 - When going from an artifact build to a regular build, |mach bootstrap| should instruct you to remove |--enable-artifact-builds|

Status: RESOLVED FIXED

(Firefox Build System :: Bootstrap Configuration, enhancement)

Description

[Botond Ballo [:botond]]

A contributor I'm mentoring was recently tripped up by the existence of artifact builds and how |mach bootstrap| relates to them.

The contributor initially thought they needed an artifact build (in part because the message |mach bootstrap| outputs when giving you the choice suggests it as the default).

When choosing an artifact build, |mach bootstrap| gives you the following instruction:

=========================
Paste the lines between the chevrons (>>> and <<<) into your mozconfig file:

<<<
# Automatically download and use compiled C++ components:
ac_add_options --enable-artifact-builds
>>>
=========================

which the contributor followed.

When they later realized that need a regular build, they re-ran |mach bootstrap| and chose the regular build option, but |mach bootstrap| did not give a corresponding instruction to remove the |--enable-artifact-builds| from the mozconfig. As a result, they were confused as to why they were still not getting a regular build.

Comment 1

[Nathan Froyd [:froydnj]]

We don't store any state about the chosen build configuration right now, so we'd have to start doing that.  Or somehow fishing around for the chosen mozconfig.

Comment 2

[Botond Ballo [:botond]]

We could just always show a message that says "if you've previously used an artifact build, be sure to remove --enable-artifact-builds from your mozconfig". That wouldn't require keeping track of anything.

Comment 3

[Mike Hommey [:glandium]]

That was covered by bug 1769405.