[m-rev.] diff: clean up symbolic links used by java grade

[Fergus Henderson]

On 17-Feb-2004, Peter Ross <pro at missioncriticalit.com> wrote:
> On Tue, Feb 17, 2004 at 02:03:59PM +1100, Julien Fischer wrote:
> > 
> > Make sure that mmake realclean cleans up the symbolic links used
> > by the library in the java grade.
> > 
> > library/Mmakefile:
> > 	Make sure the realclean target removes the symbolic links
> > 	introduced by the java grade.

Julien, this change looks fine, please commit it.

> Just a quick question, I haven't looked at the code, but how does this
> work under systems without symbolic links (e.g. windows)?  Is there the
> dependency that one must have cygwin installed.

The code for the realclean target will work fine on systems without symbolic
links.  But of course it is using "rm", so it already depends on Cygwin.

The code for _creating_ the symbolic links does require a working
"ln -s".  The javac program needs to traverse the symlinks that it
creates.

> Yes I know that mmake requires cygwin, but if possible it would be nice
> not to add more places that would have to change if we wanted to remove
> this dependency.

If/when the time comes, it would be possible to remove the dependency
without too much difficulty by making copies instead of symlinks.
But so long as we currently rely on Cygwin already, it's better to use
symlinks, because that is simpler, easier to maintain, avoids confusion
from developers accidentally editing the wrong copy, and uses less
disk space.

-- 
Fergus Henderson <fjh at cs.mu.oz.au>  |  "I have always known that the pursuit
The University of Melbourne         |  of excellence is a lethal habit"
WWW: <http://www.cs.mu.oz.au/~fjh>  |     -- the last words of T. S. Garp.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
mercury-reviews mailing list
post:  mercury-reviews at cs.mu.oz.au
administrative address: owner-mercury-reviews at cs.mu.oz.au
unsubscribe: Address: mercury-reviews-request at cs.mu.oz.au Message: unsubscribe
subscribe:   Address: mercury-reviews-request at cs.mu.oz.au Message: subscribe
--------------------------------------------------------------------------