1452697 - |mach bootstrap| should make it clearer that any patch that modifies C++ or Rust code needs a non-artifact build

Status: NEW

(Firefox Build System :: Bootstrap Configuration, enhancement)

Description

[Botond Ballo [:botond]]

Here is the message |mach bootstrap| outputs when it asks you to choose between an artifact build and a regular build.

================================
Note on Artifact Mode:

Firefox for Desktop and Android supports a fast build mode called
artifact mode. Artifact mode downloads pre-built C++ components rather
than building them locally, trading bandwidth for time.

Artifact builds will be useful to many developers who are not working
with compiled code. If you want to work on look-and-feel of Firefox,
you want "Firefox for Desktop Artifact Mode".

Similarly, if you want to work on the look-and-feel of Firefox for Android,
you want "Firefox for Android Artifact Mode".

To work on the Gecko technology platform, you would need to opt to full,
non-artifact mode. Gecko is Mozilla's web rendering engine, similar to Edge,
Blink, and WebKit. Gecko is implemented in C++ and JavaScript. If you
want to work on web rendering, you want "Firefox for Desktop", or
"Firefox for Android".

If you don't know what you want, start with just Artifact Mode of the desired
platform. Your builds will be much shorter than if you build Gecko as well.
But don't worry! You can always switch configurations later.

You can learn more about Artifact mode builds at
https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Artifact_builds.

Please choose the version of Firefox you want to build:
1. Firefox for Desktop Artifact Mode
2. Firefox for Desktop
3. Firefox for Android Artifact Mode
4. Firefox for Android
Your choice:
================================

I think this message doesn't make it sufficiently clear that *any* patch that touches C++ or Rust code needs a regular build. I've just had a contributor over in bug 1434710 mistakenly choose an artifact build and we spent a good bit of time figuring out why they were not seeing compiler errors from their changes.