Re: whacking the src/bin/sh/mk*.sh scripts altogether

[Alan Barrett <apb%cequrux.com@localhost>]

On Thu, 28 Feb 2008, Tom Spindler wrote:
> Instead of worrying about fixing all the generation scripts [...]
> and it seems like the build process for all of them has gotten
> increasingly baroque, it seems like the most sensible thing to do is
> to whack the mk*.sh files and commit the generated files into the
> tree.

I don't think the mk*.sh generation scripts are broken -- In the case
that triggered this discussion, it seems clear that the host shell was
broken.  I also don't think the process is too baroque -- it's just
copying lines from real source files to generated source files.

I am opposed, on general principles, to committing generated files.
Exceptions can be made where the sources are not available (assorted
firmware blobs), where the process of generation is too expensive
(htdocs), where it requires tools not always available in the build
environment (htdocs, or anything needing autoconf), where it breaks
tricky circular dependencies (maybe gcc's mknative process), or where
the generated files are documents that people might want to read before
building (such as src/BUILDING itself).  None of those exceptions
applies in this case.

--apb (Alan Barrett)