926797 - Remove r8c / 32-bit / gcc 4.6 references from mozconfigs

Status: RESOLVED INCOMPLETE

(Firefox for Android Graveyard :: General, defect)

Description

[Gian-Carlo Pascutto [:gcp]]

We currently have this all over our mozconfigs:

if test `uname -m` = 'x86_64'; then
  ac_add_options --with-android-ndk="$topsrcdir/android-ndk"
  ac_add_options --with-android-sdk="$topsrcdir/android-sdk-linux/platforms/android-16"
  ac_add_options --with-android-gnu-compiler-version=4.7
else
  ac_add_options --with-android-ndk="/tools/android-ndk-r8c"
  ac_add_options --with-android-sdk="/tools/android-sdk-r16/platforms/android-16"
  ac_add_options --with-android-gnu-compiler-version=4.6
fi

This looks pretty scary because it implies that what compiler gets used for building Fennec is dependent on the architecture of the build machine it runs on. As far as I can tell that's not really true and all our builders are 64-bit.

Our "Install NDK" instructions tell you to use r8e even on 32-bit:
https://wiki.mozilla.org/Mobile/Fennec/Android#Install_Android_NDK

It's not specified whether r8e/32-bit should use gcc 4.6 or gcc 4.7. When not specified, my (64-bit) machine seems to default gcc 4.7.

I gather from this that the second part of that if is entirely legacy and should be cleaned up. What's more, we should either ensure that android-gnu-compiler uses 4.7 when not told otherwhise, or change our wiki to tell people to put that configuration option in their mozconfig.

Comment 1

[Kartikaya Gupta (email:[e-mail])]

The build script at build/autoconf/android.m4 does default to gcc 4.7 if it finds it in the NDK.

Comment 2

[Trevor Saunders (:tbsaunde)]

(In reply to Gian-Carlo Pascutto (:gcp) from comment #0)
> We currently have this all over our mozconfigs:
> 
> if test `uname -m` = 'x86_64'; then
>   ac_add_options --with-android-ndk="$topsrcdir/android-ndk"
>   ac_add_options
> --with-android-sdk="$topsrcdir/android-sdk-linux/platforms/android-16"
>   ac_add_options --with-android-gnu-compiler-version=4.7
> else
>   ac_add_options --with-android-ndk="/tools/android-ndk-r8c"
>   ac_add_options
> --with-android-sdk="/tools/android-sdk-r16/platforms/android-16"
>   ac_add_options --with-android-gnu-compiler-version=4.6
> fi
> 
> This looks pretty scary because it implies that what compiler gets used for
> building Fennec is dependent on the architecture of the build machine it
> runs on. As far as I can tell that's not really true and all our builders
> are 64-bit.

that's not true for branches based on gecko before (iirc 24).

> Our "Install NDK" instructions tell you to use r8e even on 32-bit:
> https://wiki.mozilla.org/Mobile/Fennec/Android#Install_Android_NDK

so? you shouldn't use the in tree mozconfigs for local builds, and if you try to for some reason its not going to work unless you do crazy things to your enviroment.

There probably isn't much use left in keeping this stuff around, but it doesn't hurt anything and :bigger problems so I'd say we should just leave it until the older branches are completely dead

Comment 3

[Gian-Carlo Pascutto [:gcp]]

>that's not true for branches based on gecko before (iirc 24).

I don't really understand what you mean here. Are you saying we use 32-bit build machines for some trees? Or a mix of 32-bit and 64-bit machines?

>so? you shouldn't use the in tree mozconfigs for local builds, and if you try to for some reason its not going to work unless you do crazy things to your enviroment.

I'm just pointing out that the configuration that's being referred to is clearly no longer intended to be used.

I don't understand the point about waiting until the older branches are dead. Isn't the entire point of having the mozconfigs in mozilla-central that the build config matches up with the code it's supposed to build? How would fixing this affect older branches?

Comment 4

[Mike Hommey [:glandium]]

(In reply to Gian-Carlo Pascutto (:gcp) from comment #3)
> I don't understand the point about waiting until the older branches are
> dead. Isn't the entire point of having the mozconfigs in mozilla-central
> that the build config matches up with the code it's supposed to build? How
> would fixing this affect older branches?

This was done for two reasons:
- Allow to push old branches changesets to try (old branches using 32-bits builders, try using 64-bits ones)
- Smooth transition to 64-bits builders (the mozconfig change landed before the switch, and allowed for a smmooth transition back to 32-bits builders if anything went wrong)

That can go away from m-c.

Comment 5

[BMO Automation]

We have completed our launch of our new Firefox on Android. The development of the new versions use GitHub for issue tracking. If the bug report still reproduces in a current version of [Firefox on Android nightly](https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=org.mozilla.fenix) an issue can be reported at the [Fenix GitHub project](https://github.com/mozilla-mobile/fenix/). If you want to discuss your report please use [Mozilla's chat](https://wiki.mozilla.org/Matrix#Connect_to_Matrix) server https://chat.mozilla.org and join the [#fenix](https://chat.mozilla.org/#/room/#fenix:mozilla.org) channel.