From 6299f181295b720391750d493456cd8d7bc3a0fd Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: Eli Schwartz Date: Sun, 17 Nov 2024 00:57:19 -0500 Subject: ninja backend: don't rebuild all tests by default When running `ninja all` we shouldn't build testsuite programs as these might not be wanted e.g. in order to just install the project. We do want them to be built when running `ninja test`. Since meson 0.63 we actually have a dedicated ninja alias for test dependencies -- move these from the "all" rule to the dedicated test/benchmark rules. Closes: https://github.com/mesonbuild/meson/issues/1704 Closes: https://github.com/mesonbuild/meson/issues/1949 Closes: https://github.com/mesonbuild/meson/issues/2518 Closes: https://github.com/mesonbuild/meson/issues/3662 Closes: https://github.com/mesonbuild/meson/pull/5728 Closes: https://github.com/mesonbuild/meson/pull/5867 Closes: https://github.com/mesonbuild/meson/pull/6511 Closes: https://github.com/mesonbuild/meson/pull/11317 Closes: https://github.com/mesonbuild/meson/issues/13378 --- docs/markdown/snippets/test_dependencies.md | 29 +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ 1 file changed, 29 insertions(+) create mode 100644 docs/markdown/snippets/test_dependencies.md (limited to 'docs/markdown/snippets') diff --git a/docs/markdown/snippets/test_dependencies.md b/docs/markdown/snippets/test_dependencies.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..f69efa5ce --- /dev/null +++ b/docs/markdown/snippets/test_dependencies.md @@ -0,0 +1,29 @@ +## Test targets no longer built by default + +`meson test` and the `ninja all` rule have been reworked to no longer force +unnecessary rebuilds. + +`meson test` was invoking `ninja all` due to a bug if the chosen set of tests +had no build dependencies. The behavior is now the same as when tests do have +build dependencies, i.e. to only build the actual set of targets that are used +by the test. This change could cause failures when upgrading to Meson 1.7.0, if +the dependencies are not specified correctly in meson.build. Using `ninja test` +has always been guaranteed to "do the right thing" and rebuild `all` as well; +this continues to work. + +`ninja all` does not rebuild all tests anymore; it should be noted that this +change means test programs are no longer guaranteed to have been built, +depending on whether those test programs were *also* defined to build by +default / marked as installable. This avoids building test-only binaries as +part of installing the project (`ninja && ninja install`), which is unnecessary +and has no use case. + +Some users might have been relying on the "all" target building test +dependencies in combination with `meson test --no-rebuild` in order to skip +calling out to ninja when running tests. This might break with this change +because, when given `--no-rebuild`, Meson provides no guarantee that test +dependencies are present and up to date. The recommended workflow is to use +either `ninja test` or `ninja && meson test` but, if you wish to build test +programs and dependencies in a separate stage, you can use for example `ninja +all meson-test-prereq meson-benchmark-prereq` before `meson test --no-rebuild`. +These prereq targets have been available since meson 0.63.0. -- cgit v1.3