769394 - [meta] Move ancillary functionality from make files elsewhere

Status: NEW

(Firefox Build System :: General, defect)

Description

[Gregory Szorc [:gps]]

We have a lot of functionality spread over many make files (Makefile.in's or other .mk files) that isn't strictly related to building. e.g. things like running tests. Depending on where you draw the line, this could even include aspects of packaging.

This bug tracks moving this functionality elsewhere, outside of make files. This generally means porting things to mach (bug 751795). It could also mean creating standalone scripts (written in Python, shell, or otherwise - Python is encouraged).

The basic rule to test whether functionality is a candidate for moving is whether make files behave like shell scripts and not make files (construction and execution of a dependency graph). In other words, if a make target has no dependencies or only simple dependencies from the current file, then it is probably a candidate for migration.

Comment 1

[Gregory Szorc [:gps]]

I could go crazy filing bugs under this. But, I'm going to wait until bug 751795 lands or we have some other story for where we want to migrate to. I recommend others hold off as well.