[erlang-patches] Implement ./otp_build configure --enable-silent-rules

[Tuncer Ayaz]

On Wed, Nov 28, 2012 at 5:31 PM, Jachym Holecek wrote:
> # Tuncer Ayaz 2012-11-28:
> > On Wed, Nov 28, 2012 at 3:39 PM, Anthony Ramine wrote:
> > > I got bored of the too verbose output of the build process,
>
> The output isn't there to amuse you but to give you information for
> troubleshooting in case things go wrong. ;-)
>
> > > so I added automake's silent rules to Erlang/OTP.
>
> I never understood the point of a build process generating
> incomplete progress report. Either I wan't all the details (almost
> always) or just the final outcome -- something you can do without
> any patching:
>
>   $ if ! make > /tmp/build.log 2>&1 ;then echo "BUILD FAILED!!!" ; fi
>
> > > Here is an example of output produced with silent rules:
> > > https://gist.github.com/4160201
> > >
> > > I may have missed some build tools' invocations as I can only
> > > compile Erlang on my Mac.
> > >
> > >  git fetch https://github.com/nox/otp enable-silent-rules
> >
> > Nice patch, but I would prefer to make the default be silent.
>
> That's actively harmful -- a build failing on you with useless
> output is already bad enough, having to re-run the build is annoying
> on its own, having to additionally figure out the option that will
> give you useful output is almost insulting.
>
> Maybe it's just me...

Anthony's patch doesn't silence the build as it seems to me you are
thinking it does, does it? The patch reduces the various
cc, ld, erlc calls to
 CC    foo/bar/baz
by not printing the complete command. You do of course still get
errors and warnings in both modes. If the build fails, you can also
make it print the complete failed command.

The same 'silencing' mechanism is used by many mainstream projects and
enabled by default.