[GNC-dev] swig as permanent build requirement

[Geert Janssens]

Op donderdag 16 mei 2019 19:17:29 CEST schreef Stephen M. Butler:
> On 5/16/19 8:08 AM, Derek Atkins wrote:
> > Geert Janssens <geert.gnucash at kobaltwit.be> writes:
> >> For starters despite our advice several people still prefer to build in
> >> source. It appears this notion of a separate build directory is not
> >> ingrained deeply into the development ecosystem.
> > 
> > *I* like to build in source!
> > 
> > Or, more technically, I use lndir to create a symlink tree build dir and
> > then build from there.  So *technically* srcdir = .
> 
> dpkg_buildpackage also wants to build in source.  More precisely it
> creates a .build directory within the source directory as it's build area.
> 
> <<snip>>

That wouldn't be a problem. The build directory can be a subdirectory of the source directory as 
long as it's not the same as the build directory.

The idea is not to mix source files with files generated by the build. As long that that condition is 
met, you're fine.
And as src/libgnucash/x is not the same as src/.build/libgnucash/x it's ok.

But I'll add that the flatpak builds are also building in the source tree. However the issue I 
mentioned wouldn't trigger here either as flatpak always forces a fresh source tree for each new 
build, so John's suggestion of testing for the presence of swig-foo.c should still work even there.

Geert