Re: Feature request: output idea

[Tristan Van Berkom]

Mike Gibson wrote:

> On Wednesday 27 August 2003 05:28 am, Noel Yap wrote:
>  
>
> > Full Decent wrote:
> >
> > Since this isn't a bug, I'm replying to address@hidden
> >
> >    
> >
> > > I think it would be amazing if there was an optional output mode for
> > > make that would simply have a console (curses) progress bar with the
> > > name of the target and the status of its "compilation" like:
> > >
> > > bzImage         [==================================] 100%
> > > modules         [==================================] 100%
> > > modules_install [=============>                    ]  40%
> > >      
> > This would be a neat feature.
> >
> >    
> >
> > > Is something like this possible? Do you think it would be very difficult
> > > for me to make a submit a patch for something like this?
> > >      
> > Anyone is always welcome to try to create and submit patches.
> >
> > OTOH, I don't know how you'd go about creating this feature.  For example,
> > make has little or no communication with the compiler or linker.  Even if
> > it did, these tools typically don't advertise how much more work they have
> > -- I'm not even sure if it's possible for them to know how much more work
> > they have.  And compiles and links are the simple cases.
> >
> > What about targets whose actions are completely custom?
> >    
>
> If you look at his example (from a linux kernel compile), it might give a nice 
> clue to what might work, even if the origninal poster might not have realized 
> it.  While it is true that you're not going to be able to retrieve a "% 
> complete" from individual invocations of rules, when a target (like modules) 
> has a *lot* of prerequisites (like in a kernel compile), then it makes sense 
> to give a "% complete" based on the number of prerequisites that have been 
> built.
>
> It would certainly clean up the otherwise useless output (lots of gcc 
> invocations in the case of a kernel compile) of some builds and give 
> something useful.
>
> Some dificulties that I can think of off the top of my head are error 
> reporting.  Currently, all output goes to stdout, but if you wanted progress 
> bars, then that output would have to be suppressed.  But if an error occured, 
> then the output of errors that the user would normally want to see would be 
> lost to /dev/null.
>
> However, I don't see why it couldn't be implemented without breaking anything.
>  

Hmmm,
    I dont see why it couldn't be implemented without modifying `gnu make'

you could try:
=============
%.o:%.c
       $(compile)
       $(progress.o)

define progress.o
       # push percentage here
endef
=============

One could probably even check (withing "progress") what main target we 
are building
(like bzImage) and associate a predefined percentage with that.
i.e.:
   bzImage_PERCENT = 70   # 70% of the build is `make bzImage'

and you could also hazard a guess of how long a link will take depending on
how many object files you are linking:

define progress.so
       objcnt=$(words $(filter %.o, $<))
endef

Anyhow, theese are just some simple ideas,
Cheers,
                   -Tristan