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-# The MB (Meta-Build wrapper) design spec |
- |
-[TOC] |
- |
-## Intro |
- |
-MB is intended to address two major aspects of the GYP -> GN transition |
-for Chromium: |
- |
-1. "bot toggling" - make it so that we can easily flip a given bot |
- back and forth between GN and GYP. |
- |
-2. "bot configuration" - provide a single source of truth for all of |
- the different configurations (os/arch/`gyp_define` combinations) of |
- Chromium that are supported. |
- |
-MB must handle at least the `gen` and `analyze` steps on the bots, i.e., |
-we need to wrap both the `gyp_chromium` invocation to generate the |
-Ninja files, and the `analyze` step that takes a list of modified files |
-and a list of targets to build and returns which targets are affected by |
-the files. |
- |
-For more information on how to actually use MB, see |
-[the user guide](user_guide.md). |
- |
-## Design |
- |
-MB is intended to be as simple as possible, and to defer as much work as |
-possible to GN or GYP. It should live as a very simple Python wrapper |
-that offers little in the way of surprises. |
- |
-### Command line |
- |
-It is structured as a single binary that supports a list of subcommands: |
- |
-* `mb gen -c linux_rel_bot //out/Release` |
-* `mb analyze -m tryserver.chromium.linux -b linux_rel /tmp/input.json /tmp/output.json` |
- |
-### Configurations |
- |
-`mb` will first look for a bot config file in a set of different locations |
-(initially just in //ios/build/bots). Bot config files are JSON files that |
-contain keys for 'GYP_DEFINES' (a list of strings that will be joined together |
-with spaces and passed to GYP, or a dict that will be similarly converted), |
-'gn_args' (a list of strings that will be joined together), and an |
-'mb_type' field that says whether to use GN or GYP. Bot config files |
-require the full list of settings to be given explicitly. |
- |
-If no matching bot config file is found, `mb` looks in the |
-`//tools/mb/mb_config.pyl` config file to determine whether to use GYP or GN |
-for a particular build directory, and what set of flags (`GYP_DEFINES` or `gn |
-args`) to use. |
- |
-A config can either be specified directly (useful for testing) or by specifying |
-the master name and builder name (useful on the bots so that they do not need |
-to specify a config directly and can be hidden from the details). |
- |
-See the [user guide](user_guide.md#mb_config.pyl) for details. |
- |
-### Handling the analyze step |
- |
-The interface to `mb analyze` is described in the |
-[user\_guide](user_guide.md#mb_analyze). |
- |
-The way analyze works can be subtle and complicated (see below). |
- |
-Since the interface basically mirrors the way the "analyze" step on the bots |
-invokes `gyp_chromium` today, when the config is found to be a gyp config, |
-the arguments are passed straight through. |
- |
-It implements the equivalent functionality in GN by calling `gn refs |
-[list of files] --type=executable --all --as=output` and filtering the |
-output to match the list of targets. |
- |
-## Analyze |
- |
-The goal of the `analyze` step is to speed up the cycle time of the try servers |
-by only building and running the tests affected by the files in a patch, rather |
-than everything that might be out of date. Doing this ends up being tricky. |
- |
-We start with the following requirements and observations: |
- |
-* In an ideal (un-resource-constrained) world, we would build and test |
- everything that a patch affected on every patch. This does not |
- necessarily mean that we would build 'all' on every patch (see below). |
- |
-* In the real world, however, we do not have an infinite number of machines, |
- and try jobs are not infinitely fast, so we need to balance the desire |
- to get maximum test coverage against the desire to have reasonable cycle |
- times, given the number of machines we have. |
- |
-* Also, since we run most try jobs against tip-of-tree Chromium, by |
- the time one job completes on the bot, new patches have probably landed, |
- rendering the build out of date. |
- |
-* This means that the next try job may have to do a build that is out of |
- date due to a combination of files affected by a given patch, and files |
- affected for unrelated reasons. We want to rebuild and test only the |
- targets affected by the patch, so that we don't blame or punish the |
- patch author for unrelated changes. |
- |
-So: |
- |
-1. We need a way to indicate which changed files we care about and which |
- we don't (the affected files of a patch). |
- |
-2. We need to know which tests we might potentially want to run, and how |
- those are mapped onto build targets. For some kinds of tests (like |
- GTest-based tests), the mapping is 1:1 - if you want to run base_unittests, |
- you need to build base_unittests. For others (like the telemetry and |
- layout tests), you might need to build several executables in order to |
- run the tests, and that mapping might best be captured by a *meta* |
- target (a GN group or a GYP 'none' target like `webkit_tests`) that |
- depends on the right list of files. Because the GN and GYP files know |
- nothing about test steps, we have to have some way of mapping back |
- and forth between test steps and build targets. That mapping |
- is *not* currently available to MB (or GN or GYP), and so we have to |
- enough information to make it possible for the caller to do the mapping. |
- |
-3. We might also want to know when test targets are affected by data files |
- that aren't compiled (python scripts, or the layout tests themselves). |
- There's no good way to do this in GYP, but GN supports this. |
- |
-4. We also want to ensure that particular targets still compile even if they |
- are not actually tested; consider testing the installers themselves, or |
- targets that don't yet have good test coverage. We might want to use meta |
- targets for this purpose as well. |
- |
-5. However, for some meta targets, we don't necessarily want to rebuild the |
- meta target itself, perhaps just the dependencies of the meta target that |
- are affected by the patch. For example, if you have a meta target like |
- `blink_tests` that might depend on ten different test binaries. If a patch |
- only affects one of them (say `wtf_unittests`), you don't want to |
- build `blink_tests`, because that might actually also build the other nine |
- targets. In other words, some meta targets are *prunable*. |
- |
-6. As noted above, in the ideal case we actually have enough resources and |
- things are fast enough that we can afford to build everything affected by a |
- patch, but listing every possible target explicitly would be painful. The |
- GYP and GN Ninja generators provide an 'all' target that captures (nearly, |
- see [crbug.com/503241](crbug.com/503241)) everything, but unfortunately |
- neither GN nor GYP actually represents 'all' as a meta target in the build |
- graph, so we will need to write code to handle that specially. |
- |
-7. In some cases, we will not be able to correctly analyze the build graph to |
- determine the impact of a patch, and need to bail out (e.g,. if you change a |
- build file itself, it may not be easy to tell how that affects the graph). |
- In that case we should simply build and run everything. |
- |
-The interaction between 2) and 5) means that we need to treat meta targets |
-two different ways, and so we need to know which targets should be |
-pruned in the sense of 5) and which targets should be returned unchanged |
-so that we can map them back to the appropriate tests. |
- |
-So, we need three things as input: |
- |
-* `files`: the list of files in the patch |
-* `test_targets`: the list of ninja targets which, if affected by a patch, |
- should be reported back so that we can map them back to the appropriate |
- tests to run. Any meta targets in this list should *not* be pruned. |
-* `additional_compile_targets`: the list of ninja targets we wish to compile |
- *in addition to* the list in `test_targets`. Any meta targets |
- present in this list should be pruned (we don't need to return the |
- meta targets because they aren't mapped back to tests, and we don't want |
- to build them because we might build too much). |
- |
-We can then return two lists as output: |
- |
-* `compile_targets`, which is a list of pruned targets to be |
- passed to Ninja to build. It is acceptable to replace a list of |
- pruned targets by a meta target if it turns out that all of the |
- dependendencies of the target are affected by the patch (i.e., |
- all ten binaries that blink_tests depends on), but doing so is |
- not required. |
-* `test_targets`, which is a list of unpruned targets to be mapped |
- back to determine which tests to run. |
- |
-There may be substantial overlap between the two lists, but there is |
-no guarantee that one is a subset of the other and the two cannot be |
-used interchangeably or merged together without losing information and |
-causing the wrong thing to happen. |
- |
-The implementation is responsible for recognizing 'all' as a magic string |
-and mapping it onto the list of all root nodes in the build graph. |
- |
-There may be files listed in the input that don't actually exist in the build |
-graph: this could be either the result of an error (the file should be in the |
-build graph, but isn't), or perfectly fine (the file doesn't affect the build |
-graph at all). We can't tell these two apart, so we should ignore missing |
-files. |
- |
-There may be targets listed in the input that don't exist in the build |
-graph; unlike missing files, this can only indicate a configuration error, |
-and so we should return which targets are missing so the caller can |
-treat this as an error, if so desired. |
- |
-Any of the three inputs may be an empty list: |
- |
-* It normally doesn't make sense to call analyze at all if no files |
- were modified, but in rare cases we can hit a race where we try to |
- test a patch after it has already been committed, in which case |
- the list of modified files is empty. We should return 'no dependency' |
- in that case. |
- |
-* Passing an empty list for one or the other of test_targets and |
- additional_compile_targets is perfectly sensible: in the former case, |
- it can indicate that you don't want to run any tests, and in the latter, |
- it can indicate that you don't want to do build anything else in |
- addition to the test targets. |
- |
-* It doesn't make sense to call analyze if you don't want to compile |
- anything at all, so passing [] for both test_targets and |
- additional_compile_targets should probably return an error. |
- |
-In the output case, an empty list indicates that there was nothing to |
-build, or that there were no affected test targets as appropriate. |
- |
-Note that passing no arguments to Ninja is equivalent to passing |
-`all` to Ninja (at least given how GN and GYP work); however, we |
-don't want to take advantage of this in most cases because we don't |
-actually want to build every out of date target, only the targets |
-potentially affected by the files. One could try to indicate |
-to analyze that we wanted to use no arguments instead of an empty |
-list, but using the existing fields for this seems fragile and/or |
-confusing, and adding a new field for this seems unwarranted at this time. |
- |
-There is an "error" field in case something goes wrong (like the |
-empty file list case, above, or an internal error in MB/GYP/GN). The |
-analyze code should also return an error code to the shell if appropriate |
-to indicate that the command failed. |
- |
-In the case where build files themselves are modified and analyze may |
-not be able to determine a correct answer (point 7 above, where we return |
-"Found dependency (all)"), we should also return the `test_targets` unmodified |
-and return the union of `test_targets` and `additional_compile_targets` for |
-`compile_targets`, to avoid confusion. |
- |
-### Examples |
- |
-Continuing the example given above, suppose we have the following build |
-graph: |
- |
-* `blink_tests` is a meta target that depends on `webkit_unit_tests`, |
- `wtf_unittests`, and `webkit_tests` and represents all of the targets |
- needed to fully test Blink. Each of those is a separate test step. |
-* `webkit_tests` is also a meta target; it depends on `content_shell` |
- and `image_diff`. |
-* `base_unittests` is a separate test binary. |
-* `wtf_unittests` depends on `Assertions.cpp` and `AssertionsTest.cpp`. |
-* `webkit_unit_tests` depends on `WebNode.cpp` and `WebNodeTest.cpp`. |
-* `content_shell` depends on `WebNode.cpp` and `Assertions.cpp`. |
-* `base_unittests` depends on `logging.cc` and `logging_unittest.cc`. |
- |
-#### Example 1 |
- |
-We wish to run 'wtf_unittests' and 'webkit_tests' on a bot, but not |
-compile any additional targets. |
- |
-If a patch touches WebNode.cpp, then analyze gets as input: |
- |
- { |
- "files": ["WebNode.cpp"], |
- "test_targets": ["wtf_unittests", "webkit_tests"], |
- "additional_compile_targets": [] |
- } |
- |
-and should return as output: |
- |
- { |
- "status": "Found dependency", |
- "compile_targets": ["webkit_unit_tests"], |
- "test_targets": ["webkit_tests"] |
- } |
- |
-Note how `webkit_tests` was pruned in compile_targets but not in test_targets. |
- |
-#### Example 2 |
- |
-Using the same patch as Example 1, assume we wish to run only `wtf_unittests`, |
-but additionally build everything needed to test Blink (`blink_tests`): |
- |
-We pass as input: |
- |
- { |
- "files": ["WebNode.cpp"], |
- "test_targets": ["wtf_unittests"], |
- "additional_compile_targets": ["blink_tests"] |
- } |
- |
-And should get as output: |
- |
- { |
- "status": "Found dependency", |
- "compile_targets": ["webkit_unit_tests"], |
- "test_targets": [] |
- } |
- |
-Here `blink_tests` was pruned in the output compile_targets, and |
-test_targets was empty, since blink_tests was not listed in the input |
-test_targets. |
- |
-#### Example 3 |
- |
-Build everything, but do not run any tests. |
- |
-Input: |
- |
- { |
- "files": ["WebNode.cpp"], |
- "test_targets": [], |
- "additional_compile_targets": ["all"] |
- } |
- |
-Output: |
- |
- { |
- "status": "Found dependency", |
- "compile_targets": ["webkit_unit_tests", "content_shell"], |
- "test_targets": [] |
- } |
- |
-#### Example 4 |
- |
-Same as Example 2, but a build file was modified instead of a source file. |
- |
-Input: |
- |
- { |
- "files": ["BUILD.gn"], |
- "test_targets": ["wtf_unittests"], |
- "additional_compile_targets": ["blink_tests"] |
- } |
- |
-Output: |
- |
- { |
- "status": "Found dependency (all)", |
- "compile_targets": ["webkit_unit_tests", "wtf_unittests"], |
- "test_targets": ["wtf_unittests"] |
- } |
- |
-test_targets was returned unchanged, compile_targets was pruned. |
- |
-## Random Requirements and Rationale |
- |
-This section is collection of semi-organized notes on why MB is the way |
-it is ... |
- |
-### in-tree or out-of-tree |
- |
-The first issue is whether or not this should exist as a script in |
-Chromium at all; an alternative would be to simply change the bot |
-configurations to know whether to use GYP or GN, and which flags to |
-pass. |
- |
-That would certainly work, but experience over the past two years |
-suggests a few things: |
- |
- * we should push as much logic as we can into the source repositories |
- so that they can be versioned and changed atomically with changes to |
- the product code; having to coordinate changes between src/ and |
- build/ is at best annoying and can lead to weird errors. |
- * the infra team would really like to move to providing |
- product-independent services (i.e., not have to do one thing for |
- Chromium, another for NaCl, a third for V8, etc.). |
- * we found that during the SVN->GIT migration the ability to flip bot |
- configurations between the two via changes to a file in chromium |
- was very useful. |
- |
-All of this suggests that the interface between bots and Chromium should |
-be a simple one, hiding as much of the chromium logic as possible. |
- |
-### Why not have MB be smarter about de-duping flags? |
- |
-This just adds complexity to the MB implementation, and duplicates logic |
-that GYP and GN already have to support anyway; in particular, it might |
-require MB to know how to parse GYP and GN values. The belief is that |
-if MB does *not* do this, it will lead to fewer surprises. |
- |
-It will not be hard to change this if need be. |
- |
-### Integration w/ gclient runhooks |
- |
-On the bots, we will disable `gyp_chromium` as part of runhooks (using |
-`GYP_CHROMIUM_NO_ACTION=1`), so that mb shows up as a separate step. |
- |
-At the moment, we expect most developers to either continue to use |
-`gyp_chromium` in runhooks or to disable at as above if they have no |
-use for GYP at all. We may revisit how this works once we encourage more |
-people to use GN full-time (i.e., we might take `gyp_chromium` out of |
-runhooks altogether). |
- |
-### Config per flag set or config per (os/arch/flag set)? |
- |
-Currently, mb_config.pyl does not specify the host_os, target_os, host_cpu, or |
-target_cpu values for every config that Chromium runs on, it only specifies |
-them for when the values need to be explicitly set on the command line. |
- |
-Instead, we have one config per unique combination of flags only. |
- |
-In other words, rather than having `linux_rel_bot`, `win_rel_bot`, and |
-`mac_rel_bot`, we just have `rel_bot`. |
- |
-This design allows us to determine easily all of the different sets |
-of flags that we need to support, but *not* which flags are used on which |
-host/target combinations. |
- |
-It may be that we should really track the latter. Doing so is just a |
-config file change, however. |
- |
-### Non-goals |
- |
-* MB is not intended to replace direct invocation of GN or GYP for |
- complicated build scenarios (aka ChromeOS), where multiple flags need |
- to be set to user-defined paths for specific toolchains (e.g., where |
- ChromeOS needs to specify specific board types and compilers). |
- |
-* MB is not intended at this time to be something developers use frequently, |
- or to add a lot of features to. We hope to be able to get rid of it once |
- the GYP->GN migration is done, and so we should not add things for |
- developers that can't easily be added to GN itself. |
- |
-* MB is not intended to replace the |
- [CR tool](https://code.google.com/p/chromium/wiki/CRUserManual). Not |
- only is it only intended to replace the gyp\_chromium part of `'gclient |
- runhooks'`, it is not really meant as a developer-facing tool. |