1486807 - Change parse_histograms.py to have the histogram_allowlist as input

Status: RESOLVED WONTFIX

(Toolkit :: Telemetry, enhancement, P5)

Description

[Alessio Placitelli [:Dexter]]

We should investigate if we can change parse_histograms.py (and adjust the build system accordingly) in order to apss the path to the histogram_whitelist.json file at build time, rather than hardcoding its path in the code.

Comment 1

[Alessio Placitelli [:Dexter]]

Setup as mentored!

Comment 2

[Alessio Placitelli [:Dexter]]

Hi :gps!

Is there any way to get the path to the directory the moz.build file lives in from the build system?
We're currently somehow hardcoding the path to the 'histogram-whitelist.json' file at [1], but we really want to move away from that and take the path to that file as an input to the python script.
The files lives at the same level of the moz.build file, in the toolkit/components/telemetry module root.

[1] - https://searchfox.org/mozilla-central/rev/a41fd8cb947266ea2e3f463fc6e31c88bfab9d41/toolkit/components/telemetry/build_scripts/parsers/parse_histograms.py#105

Comment 3

[Gregory Szorc [:gps]]

From within moz.build files, SRCDIR (https://firefox-source-docs.mozilla.org/build/buildsystem/mozbuild-symbols.html#srcdir) defines the directory where the moz.build file is. There's also TOPSRCDIR and RELATIVEDIR.

If you are in a Python script invoked by the build system, `import buildconfig` and use `buildconfig.topsrcdir` to get the path to the source directory, for example. This module is defined by build/buildconfig.py and essentially re-exports symbols that allow you to access the build configuration.

Comment 4

[Alessio Placitelli [:Dexter]]

Clearing ni? and putting this up for triage again, I won't be able to tackle it.

Comment 5

[Chris H-C :chutten]

We're unlikely to take this on at this juncture.