Re: [gnome-love] Giving up on compiling GNOME :( [Was: Compiling 2.15.4]

[Craig Keogh <cskeogh bigpond net au>]

On Thu, 2006-08-10 at 13:09 -0600, Elijah Newren wrote:
> Yes, that's using jhbuild and compiling from cvs.  And, well, the
> builds haven't successfully built to completion on any of them for
> quite some time (checkout out all the red at http://jhbuild.bxlug.be/;
> the only green is for someone who only built a single module a few
> times).  But the idea is that hopefully if we can make cvs building
> less painful, then tarballs automatically become a bit less painful to
> build from as well.
>
> The jhautobuild stuff being done by Frederic is one area where we're
> starting to tackle automated builds.  Fluendo (or at least Thomas)
> will be using the machines purchased for streaming GUADEC to set up
> buildbot to get further automated building done.  joseph, from
> GARNOME, is also pursuing getting some time on some grid machines
> donated by various companies (sun?) for automated building as well.
> I've got some ideas I want to try out if I can get a machine for it
> (though not until after my dissertation defense).  Federico recently
> emailed d-d-l about how much of a joke the current building situation
> is, starting a discussion there.  I've done something similar a couple
> times this release, even airing a few maintainers out to dry (where I
> could have used a bit more tact).  But, anyway, there are various
> efforts out there trying to correct the sitution.  As always,
> something this global of a scale will take some time to fix, but it
> looks like things are moving in the right direction.
>
> Cheers,
> Elijah

The common steps new Gnome developers take:
1. Build from CVS
2. Fix bugs.

However, must new developers get stuck at 1. jhbuild fails, and they
give up.

I've been trying to make jhbuild easy to use, and fix some problems.
[1][2][3][4]. However, James Henstridge doesn't have time to look at all
the problems. And understandably. He provided his build script, he
doesn't want to spend all his time supporting it. And once you have your
environment working, building becomes less interesting.

My steps trying to get into Gnome development:
1. Build using jhbuild
2. jhbuild fails.
3. Ok. I'll fix jhbuild.
4. Submit bugs / patches.
5. Bugs / patches ignored.
6. Give up.

--
Craig Keogh


[1] http://bugzilla.gnome.org/show_bug.cgi?id=350127
[2] http://bugzilla.gnome.org/show_bug.cgi?id=349477
[3] http://bugzilla.gnome.org/show_bug.cgi?id=348268
[4] http://bugzilla.gnome.org/show_bug.cgi?id=133714