Thread: meson vs tarballs

I and several colleagues have just been trying to build from a tarball 
with meson.


`meson setup build .` results in this:


[...]

Message: checking for file conflicts between source and build directory

meson.build:2963:2: ERROR: Problem encountered:
****
Non-clean source code directory detected.

To build with meson the source tree may not have an in-place, ./configure
style, build configured. You can have both meson and ./configure style 
builds
for the same source tree by building out-of-source / VPATH with
configure. Alternatively use a separate check out for meson based builds.


Conflicting files in source directory:

[huge list of files]

The conflicting files need to be removed, either by removing the files 
listed
above, or by running configure and then make maintainer-clean.

****


That seems pretty awful and unfriendly and I didn't see anything about 
it in the docs.


cheers


andrew




--
Andrew Dunstan
EDB: https://www.enterprisedb.com

On 13.03.24 07:11, Andrew Dunstan wrote:
> I and several colleagues have just been trying to build from a tarball 
> with meson.

> That seems pretty awful and unfriendly and I didn't see anything about 
> it in the docs.

At https://www.postgresql.org/docs/16/install-requirements.html is says:

"""
Alternatively, PostgreSQL can be built using Meson. This is currently 
experimental and only works when building from a Git checkout (not from 
a distribution tarball).
"""

On 2024-03-13 We 02:22, Peter Eisentraut wrote:
> On 13.03.24 07:11, Andrew Dunstan wrote:
>> I and several colleagues have just been trying to build from a 
>> tarball with meson.
>
>> That seems pretty awful and unfriendly and I didn't see anything 
>> about it in the docs.
>
> At https://www.postgresql.org/docs/16/install-requirements.html is says:
>
> """
> Alternatively, PostgreSQL can be built using Meson. This is currently 
> experimental and only works when building from a Git checkout (not 
> from a distribution tarball).
> """
>

Ah!. Darn, I missed that. Thanks.


cheers


andrew

--
Andrew Dunstan
EDB: https://www.enterprisedb.com

On 2024-03-13 We 02:31, Andrew Dunstan wrote:
>
> On 2024-03-13 We 02:22, Peter Eisentraut wrote:
>> On 13.03.24 07:11, Andrew Dunstan wrote:
>>> I and several colleagues have just been trying to build from a 
>>> tarball with meson.
>>
>>> That seems pretty awful and unfriendly and I didn't see anything 
>>> about it in the docs.
>>
>> At https://www.postgresql.org/docs/16/install-requirements.html is says:
>>
>> """
>> Alternatively, PostgreSQL can be built using Meson. This is currently 
>> experimental and only works when building from a Git checkout (not 
>> from a distribution tarball).
>> """
>>
>
> Ah!. Darn, I missed that. Thanks.
>
>
>

Of course, when release 17 comes out this had better not be the case, 
since we have removed the custom Windows build system.


cheers


andrew

--
Andrew Dunstan
EDB: https://www.enterprisedb.com

On 13.03.24 07:42, Andrew Dunstan wrote:
> On 2024-03-13 We 02:31, Andrew Dunstan wrote:
>> On 2024-03-13 We 02:22, Peter Eisentraut wrote:
>>> On 13.03.24 07:11, Andrew Dunstan wrote:
>>>> I and several colleagues have just been trying to build from a 
>>>> tarball with meson.
>>>
>>>> That seems pretty awful and unfriendly and I didn't see anything 
>>>> about it in the docs.
>>>
>>> At https://www.postgresql.org/docs/16/install-requirements.html is says:
>>>
>>> """
>>> Alternatively, PostgreSQL can be built using Meson. This is currently 
>>> experimental and only works when building from a Git checkout (not 
>>> from a distribution tarball).
>>> """
>>
>> Ah!. Darn, I missed that. Thanks.

> Of course, when release 17 comes out this had better not be the case, 
> since we have removed the custom Windows build system.

Yes, this has been changed in 17.

Peter Eisentraut <peter@eisentraut.org> writes:
> On 13.03.24 07:42, Andrew Dunstan wrote:
>> On 2024-03-13 We 02:31, Andrew Dunstan wrote:
>>>> Alternatively, PostgreSQL can be built using Meson. This is currently 
>>>> experimental and only works when building from a Git checkout (not 
>>>> from a distribution tarball).

>> Ah!. Darn, I missed that. Thanks.
>> Of course, when release 17 comes out this had better not be the case, 
>> since we have removed the custom Windows build system.

> Yes, this has been changed in 17.

My understanding is that pretty soon there will be no difference,
ie distribution tarballs will have the same contents as a git pull
(less the .git infrastructure).  If we're planning on making that
happen for 17, perhaps we'd better get on with it.

            regards, tom lane