445128 - Shouldn't install in /usr/lib/$appname-$version

Status: RESOLVED FIXED

(Firefox Build System :: General, defect)

Description

[Mike Hommey [:glandium]]

I'm okay with major versions having their own directory, but having each minor version install in a different directory is just silly.

Are there variables somewhere already to know the application major version (Gecko 1.9/1.9.1, Ffx 3.0/3.1) ?

Comment 1

[Mike Hommey [:glandium]]

/etc/gre.d files have the same problem

Comment 2

[(not currently active) Ted Mielczarek]

I don't think we have this anywhere.

MOZILLA_VERSION is populated from milestone.txt:
http://mxr.mozilla.org/mozilla/source/config/milestone.txt

The Firefox version is populated from version.txt:
http://mxr.mozilla.org/mozilla/source/browser/config/version.txt

These both have minor versions in them. I don't think you can automatically divine the major version from those.

Comment 3

[Mike Hommey [:glandium]]

(In reply to comment #2)
> These both have minor versions in them. I don't think you can automatically
> divine the major version from those.

Unfortunately, there is no possible automatic way to do that. The best would probably to add a new variable for that... what do you think its name should be ?

Comment 4

[Mike Hommey [:glandium]]

Attachment: Inadequate patch

This is what I've been using for 2 years on Debian. Obviously, the version setting hunk is inappropriate if that ever needs to be checked-in. It would be nice to have a programmatical way to get the "base version" from the milestone, but it is kind of tricky, as 3.6 and 3.6.x would have a base version of 3.6, 1.9 and 1.9.0.x would have a base version of 1.9 and 1.9.1 and 1.9.1.x would have a base version of 1.9.1.

Comment 5

[Mike Hommey [:glandium]]

Attachment: Use the first two digits of the version number for the install directory

Now we have pretty straightforward version numbers, we can just restrict to the first 2 digits safely (which takes care of chemspills)

Comment 6

[Mike Hommey [:glandium]]

Note that 7.0a2 type of versions will stay that way, and I'm not sure this is really helpful...

Comment 7

[Kyle Huey (Exited; not receiving bugmail, old account, do not use)]

Comment on attachment 545859 [details] [diff] [review]
Use the first two digits of the version number for the install directory

Roping in Callek to take a look at this from Seamonkey's perspective.

Comment 8

[Kyle Huey (Exited; not receiving bugmail, old account, do not use)]

Comment on attachment 545859 [details] [diff] [review]
Use the first two digits of the version number for the install directory

This looks fine, although I'd do

+MOZ_APP_EXPLODED_VERSION = $(subst ., ,$(MOZ_APP_VERSION))
+MOZ_APP_BASE_VERSION = $(word 1,$(MOZ_APP_EXPLODED_VERSION).$(word 2,$(MOZ_APP_EXPLODED_VERSION))

Comment 9

[Mike Hommey [:glandium]]

Note that, thinking of it, now that firefox version numbers supposedly are only an internal thing, does a /usr/lib/$app-$ver path still make sense at all by default?

Comment 10

[Kyle Huey (Exited; not receiving bugmail, old account, do not use)]

Excellent question.

Comment 11

[Justin Wood (:Callek)]

Comment on attachment 545859 [details] [diff] [review]
Use the first two digits of the version number for the install directory

As a seamonkey person I have no problems with this as long as the first two digits of the ver are still useful here. (I'm not certain if dropping the version here by default would be usable for us though -- as was just suggested)

But I'm also not a linux user, and only am exposed to its details from MozBuild, and the build machines for SeaMonkey, so punting to the c-c build system owner and an actual Linux user (KaiRo) for the feedback.

Comment 12

[Robert Kaiser]

Comment on attachment 545859 [details] [diff] [review]
Use the first two digits of the version number for the install directory

I *think* this should work out. In the end, this is really only important for "make install", right? In that case, it doesn't influence the builds we are packaging and providing ourselves.

Comment 13

[Mike Hommey [:glandium]]

Attachment: Bug 445128 - Stop putting the version number in the target directory for make install.

Back when I filed this bug, $appname-$version was already useless, but
there actually were multiple supported versions (e.g. 3.5/3.6). So it
made sense to have e.g. firefox-3.5 and firefox-3.6, but not
firefox-3.5.12 and firefox-3.5.13.

Fast forward 10 years, and we change "major" versions every 6 to 8
weeks, have multiple chemspills every other week, and installing to
firefox-57.0, firefox-57.0.1, firefox-57.0.2, firefox-57.0.3 doesn't
make any kind of sense. Even firefox-56, firefox-57 is pretty much
useless.

There /kind/ of was some usefulness to the version in the SDK
directories, but those are gone.

I'm pretty sure no downstream is actually using versioned directories
anyways.

At this point, it seems better to just use the application name, without
the version. A case could be made about ESR, but that would be better
handled with a separate application name (e.g. firefox-esr).

Review commit: https://reviewboard.mozilla.org/r/209598/diff/#index_header
See other reviews: https://reviewboard.mozilla.org/r/209598/

Comment 14

[Nick Alexander :nalexander [he/him]]

Comment on attachment 8939193 [details]
Bug 445128 - Stop putting the version number in the target directory for make install.

https://reviewboard.mozilla.org/r/209598/#review215436

This is more policy than technology, but I can't think of a better person to make that policy call than yourself.  Roll on.

Comment 15

[Pulsebot]

Pushed by [e-mail]:
https://hg.mozilla.org/integration/autoland/rev/8f74ddd39f61
Stop putting the version number in the target directory for make install. r=nalexander

Comment 16

[Noemi Erli[:noemi_erli]]

https://hg.mozilla.org/mozilla-central/rev/8f74ddd39f61

Comment 17

[Henrik Gemal]

wow. a 10 years old bug fixed!