[Build-common-hackers] recommending verbose build logs

[Emilio Pozuelo Monfort]

On 02/03/11 01:21, Matthias Klose wrote:
> It's always interesting to look at build logs, or to receive bug reports of the form
> 
>   CC
>   <compiler error message>
> 
> or
> 
>   CCLD
>   <linker error message>
> 
> without knowing how the compiler or the linker were called.  Maybe it is
> convenient for a package maintainer watching the build scrolling by (some of
> these are even colorized), but lacking this kind of information in the first
> place seems to be the wrong thing.  So please let us deprecate this anti-feature
> and recommend verbose build logs by default and only turn them off by request
> (e.g. with DEB_BUILD_OPTIONS=noverbose).
> 
> The only reason (I know) for for needing quiet builds logs should be handled
> depending on the buildd (e.g. if sending/emailing a large log is unreliable).
> 
> The majority of quiet build logs comes from cmake based systems and (newer)
> automake based systems, so maybe this could be handled by cdbs and debhelper for
> the majority of packages.  Other proposals how to include the important
> information would be welcome.

CDBS already passes --disable-silent-rules if the build system is
autotools-based, and -DCMAKE_VERBOSE_MAKEFILE=ON to cmake (not sure if this
later option has the desired effect here or is unrelated, I have no clue about
cmake).

Cheers,
Emilio