1630523 - XPCOM gtests should not need to build the whole libxul-gtest

Status: NEW

(Firefox Build System :: General, task, P3)

Description

[Simon Giesecke [:sg] [he/him]]

The XPCOM gtests do not actually depend on the whole of libxul/libxul-gtest (at least this applies to the tests for xpcom/ds, but I guess also for the others). However, changes to any header in xpcom tend to require rebuilding lots of libxul (one particular "bad" example being xpcom/ds/nsTArray.h). One major aspect for the effectiveness of unit tests are fast feedback cycles, so it would be great to improve this situation. The XPCOM gtests should build and link only xpcom, mfbt and other basic stuff they actually depend on.

This will also require some changes in gtest execution (probably a separate mach command). Similar things may apply to other gtests, so maybe a more holistic approach to generalize the mach gtest command might make sense.

Comment 1

[Simon Giesecke [:sg] [he/him]]

I just learned that there already is mach webtrc-gtest, so this should probably be consolidated somehow.

Comment 2

[BugBot [:suhaib / :marco/ :calixte]]

In the process of migrating remaining bugs to the new severity system, the severity for this bug cannot be automatically determined. Please retriage this bug using the new severity system.