1606825 - Make bootstrap prompt for hg vs git

Status: RESOLVED FIXED

(Firefox Build System :: Bootstrap Configuration, enhancement)

Description

[James Graham [:jgraham]]

For many new contributors getting the source onto their machines is one of the hardest steps before getting started. Bootstrap helps with many parts of this via a system of interactive prompts but for some reason the VCS choice, is only available as a command line argument rather than via the prompt system. This is likely to railroad many would-be contributors into a situation where they have to work with an unfamiliar VCS just for gecko.

Now that cinnabar and hg offer roughly the same performance for the initial clone we should allow bootstrap users to choose which vcs to use for their setup via the same prompt mechanism as all the other choices they have to make.

Comment 1

[James Graham [:jgraham]]

Attachment: Bug 1606825 - Prompt which VCS to use for gecko clone,

Make the choice of VCS work via an interactive prompt rather than by
command line argument, just like we do for all other choices.

Comment 2

[Pulsebot]

Pushed by [e-mail]:
https://hg.mozilla.org/integration/autoland/rev/89045eb8ecaf
Prompt which VCS to use for gecko clone, r=firefox-build-system-reviewers,rstewart

Comment 3

[Sylvestre Ledru [:Sylvestre]]

Thanks for implementing this!
Do you think we should mention this feature in https://firefox-source-docs.mozilla.org/tools/docs/contribute/how_to_contribute_firefox.html ?

Comment 4

[James Graham [:jgraham]]

Yes, I think that page should be updated to recommend using bootstrap.py like e.g. https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Mozilla/Developer_guide/Build_Instructions/Simple_Firefox_build/Linux_and_MacOS_build_preparation

Comment 5

[Arthur Iakab [arthur_iakab]]

https://hg.mozilla.org/mozilla-central/rev/89045eb8ecaf