bug#55969: Feature request: configure option to build Emacs without any documentation

bug#55969: Feature request: configure option to build Emacs without any documentation

[Gregor Zattler]

Dear emacs developers, Eli,
* Eli Zaretskii <eliz@gnu.org> [2022-06-14; 14:04]:
> An optimized build of Emacs produces org.texi in about 30 to 40
> seconds here, and that is also quite annoying for a production build.
> Lars recently made significant changes in our build scripts and
> support code because he didn't like much shorter delays.  We build
> Emacs many times a week, so these delays add up.

the possibility to configure an Emacs in order
to build without any documentation , as perhaps in:

~/src/emacs $ ./configure --without-any-documentation [...]

would be especially helpful for Emacs devs and for everybody
when doing git bisect with unoptimized builds.

Thanks for Emacs, Gregor

bug#55969: Feature request: configure option to build Emacs without any documentation

[Eli Zaretskii]

> From: Gregor Zattler <telegraph@gmx.net>
> Date: Tue, 14 Jun 2022 15:08:21 +0200
> 
> Dear emacs developers, Eli,
> * Eli Zaretskii <eliz@gnu.org> [2022-06-14; 14:04]:
> > An optimized build of Emacs produces org.texi in about 30 to 40
> > seconds here, and that is also quite annoying for a production build.
> > Lars recently made significant changes in our build scripts and
> > support code because he didn't like much shorter delays.  We build
> > Emacs many times a week, so these delays add up.
> 
> the possibility to configure an Emacs in order
> to build without any documentation , as perhaps in:
> 
> ~/src/emacs $ ./configure --without-any-documentation [...]
> 
> would be especially helpful for Emacs devs and for everybody
> when doing git bisect with unoptimized builds.

Thanks, but I don't see how can I do partial builds: one can never
know to which part of Emacs will bug reports or submitted patches be
related.

bug#55969: Feature request: configure option to build Emacs without any documentation

[Glenn Morris]

You don't need a configure option; just use

make -C src emacs

(used to work; haven't checked recently)

bug#55969: Feature request: configure option to build Emacs without any documentation

[Lars Ingebrigtsen]

Glenn Morris <rgm@gnu.org> writes:

> You don't need a configure option; just use
>
> make -C src emacs
>
> (used to work; haven't checked recently)

Yes, I don't think a configuration option here will give us
something substantially easier to work with during bisection.

However, it might be nice to have a target in GNUmakefile for doing
bisection that would allow you to say

git checkout ...; git clean -dfx; make without-manuals

that would run autogen/configure as normal, but then "make -C src emacs"
instead of "make all"?

-- 
(domestic pets only, the antidote for overdose, milk.)
   bloggy blog: http://lars.ingebrigtsen.no

bug#55969: Feature request: configure option to build Emacs without any documentation

[Robert Pluim]

>>>>> On Wed, 15 Jun 2022 14:34:38 +0200, Lars Ingebrigtsen <larsi@gnus.org> said:

    Lars> Glenn Morris <rgm@gnu.org> writes:
    >> You don't need a configure option; just use
    >> 
    >> make -C src emacs
    >> 
    >> (used to work; haven't checked recently)

    Lars> Yes, I don't think a configuration option here will give us
    Lars> something substantially easier to work with during bisection.

    Lars> However, it might be nice to have a target in GNUmakefile for doing
    Lars> bisection that would allow you to say

    Lars> git checkout ...; git clean -dfx; make without-manuals

    Lars> that would run autogen/configure as normal, but then "make -C src emacs"
    Lars> instead of "make all"?

If this is for the purposes of historical bisection, then you'd need a
time machine to install those changes. 'git bisect' can take a script
to determine good/bad, so you'd just stick the appropriate commands in
there.

Robert
-- 

bug#55969: Feature request: configure option to build Emacs without any documentation

[Lars Ingebrigtsen]

Robert Pluim <rpluim@gmail.com> writes:

> If this is for the purposes of historical bisection, then you'd need a
> time machine to install those changes.

Well, in the future you could bisect back to today using this new
mechanism.

> 'git bisect' can take a script to determine good/bad, so you'd just
> stick the appropriate commands in there.

Sure, but there are other usages possible than a formal "git bisect".

-- 
(domestic pets only, the antidote for overdose, milk.)
   bloggy blog: http://lars.ingebrigtsen.no

bug#55969: Feature request: configure option to build Emacs without any documentation

[Lars Ingebrigtsen]

Just to see what the impact might be -- with the following (on my AMD
build machine), "make -j32 bootstrap" takes 1:32 and "make -j32
without-manuals" takes...  1:30.

I.e., it's not really noticeable.  (On machines with slower/fewer cores
it would be more seconds, but the same percentage, I guess.)

So I don't think this is worth doing -- I don't think many people
would actually use this, especially since you can just say
"make -C src lisp" yourself -- so I'm closing this bug report.

diff --git a/GNUmakefile b/GNUmakefile
index 8eb61dc0ad..9d68d08369 100644
--- a/GNUmakefile
+++ b/GNUmakefile
@@ -117,7 +117,11 @@ Makefile:
 bootstrap: Makefile
 	$(MAKE) -f Makefile all
 
-.PHONY: bootstrap default $(ORDINARY_GOALS)
+without-manuals: Makefile
+	$(MAKE) -C src all
+	$(MAKE) -C lisp all
+
+.PHONY: bootstrap default $(ORDINARY_GOALS) without-manuals
 
 endif
 endif

-- 
(domestic pets only, the antidote for overdose, milk.)
   bloggy blog: http://lars.ingebrigtsen.no