Re: [ft-devel] ft2build.h being regenerated each time.

[Antoine Leca]

Hi guys,

Samuel Williams wrote:
> The main issue, as demonstrated, is that the mtime of the file is not
> preserved. This means that build tools that depend on mtime (e.g. make)
> fail to work as efficiently as possible
Mmmh, the definition of 'efficiency' here is not as universal as you
might seem to think.
I agree some tasks might be made more efficient when mtime is preserved
or when "unnecessary" copying is skipped, like when building
distributions; however other tasks (like hacking with Freetype being one
subcomponent which happens to be hacked on; or having Freetype being
build by various toolchains) might plainly break if you do that. And I
guess you'll prefer a sub-efficient correct package over a
over-optimized broken one.

As a result, it seems to me that the as-shipped default should remain as
it is now, to preserve customary habits, to avoid bad surprises, and as
Werner said, since it is also the way everybody is doing it at large.


Antoine