Shibboleth Developers

[Tom Scavo <>]

On 7/25/05, Chad La Joie 
<>
 wrote:
> Tom Scavo wrote:
> > - Targets clean-install and install.idp.filesystem in build.xml invoke 
> > the task
> >   <delete dir="${idp.home}/etc" />
> > The latter is benign and can be safely removed but the delete task in
> > clean-install is a potentially serious problem.
> 
> Walter is probably better able to address this one, but if I ran
> clean-install I'd expect it to clean out everything is installed. 

Yes, but a clean install (or uninstall, whatever you want to call it)
should not remove user files, ever.  That's what happens if you invoke
the clean-install target (intentionally or otherwise).

> If I
> just wanted to clean out the built stuff (classes, generated jars, etc)
> I'd use the clean-build target.  Maybe this just needs some documentation.

Actually, documentation makes the problem worse.  Howard recommends
(in his otherwise excellent developer's document) that the preferred
target sequence begin with clean-install, which wipes out any existing
customizations.

> > - Invoking ext-compile (independent of ext-build) in
> > extension-build.xml produces no class files since ext-compile does not
> > depend on ext-build-init.
> >
> > - Target ext-copy-libs in extension-build.xml depends on ext-compile
> > instead of ext-build-init.
> >
> > - Target ext-copy-webpages in extension-build.xml depends on
> > ext-compile instead of ext-build-init.
> >
> > - Invoking ext-gen-docs (independent of ext-build) in
> > extension-build.xml produces no javadoc files since ext-gen-docs does
> > not depend on ext-build-init.
>  >
>  > - Invoking ext-package (independent of ext-build) in
>  > extension-build.xml produces an empty JAR file since ext-package does
>  > not depend on both ext-compile and ext-copy-src-conf.
> 
> These tasks can not be invoked individually,

Yes, I think they can.  I assume you mean it's not supported?

> and none of the tasks are
> meant to be executed by anything other than the main build file.  If you
> attempt to do so you'll need to make sure a whole lot of environmental
> stuff is set up correctly. 

Actually, it's surprisingly simple.  For example:

  <ant dir="../.." target="ext-compile" inheritAll="false">
    <property name="exts.dir" location=".."/>
    <property name="ext.root" value="."/>
  </ant>

works just fine assuming ext-compile has the dependency mentioned above.

> Failure to do so will cause the behavior
> you're seeing.

No, I don't think so.  The reason they fail is because they lack the
required dependencies.  If you were to invoke these targets from
within extension-build.xml, I believe you'd have exactly the issues.

> > - Mention the throwaway directories ext.dist, ext.classes, and
> > ext.docs in README.txt so extension developers are aware of the
> > potential conflicts.
> 
> Not sure this makes sense.  The README file tells you everything you can
> touch.

No, it doesn't say anything about ext.dist and ext.docs so if the
extension happens to use those subdirectories for something else (like
I did), there will be a conflict.

Thanks,
Tom