Mesa Sees An Initial Meson Build System Port

[phoronix]

Phoronix: Mesa Sees An Initial Meson Build System Port

A few months ago was a vibrant discussion about a Meson proposal for libdrm/Mesa while today the initial patches were posted in bringing a possible Meson build system port for Mesa...

http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=Mesa-Meson-Port

[sdack]

To quote from the mailing list:

Commands autotools : 'mkdir autotools ; cd autotools ; ../autogen.sh \ --without-dri-drivers --without-gallium-drivers \ --with-platforms=x11,wayland --with-vulkan-drivers=intel,radeon \ && make -j6' meson : meson build -Dvulkan-drivers=intel,amd -Dplatforms=x11,wayland && ninja -C build Results autotools : sh -c 535.34s user 30.33s system 310% cpu 3:02.05 total meson : sh -c 136.58s user 11.98s system 372% cpu 39.895 total

While I like speed does it not seem to be a fair comparison. One doesn't regenerate a configure script with each build, but it's what's being done here by running autogen.sh instead of configure. He then admits the meson script doesn't do quite as much as the configure script ("... meson doesn't build glx, egl, or the glsl compiler" ...), but continues comparing the times anyway.

That's just cheating.

[Masush5]

To quote from the mailing list:

While I like speed does it not seem to be a fair comparison. One doesn't regenerate a configure script with each build, but it's what's being done here by running autogen.sh instead of configure. He then admits the meson script doesn't do quite as much as the configure script ("... meson doesn't build glx, egl, or the glsl compiler" ...), but continues comparing the times anyway.

That's just cheating.

No, it accurately compares the time it takes to build anv and radv from a clean directory. The meson script doesn't do as much because it's just an initial port for the vulkan drivers and autotools was set up to just build those in the comparison.

[dcbaker]

To quote from the mailing list:

While I like speed does it not seem to be a fair comparison. One doesn't regenerate a configure script with each build, but it's what's being done here by running autogen.sh instead of configure. He then admits the meson script doesn't do quite as much as the configure script ("... meson doesn't build glx, egl, or the glsl compiler" ...), but continues comparing the times anyway.

That's just cheating.

You misunderstand, glx, egl, and the glsl compiler are not required for Vulkan, they're only required for OpenGL, and it would be ideal if autotools didn't build them when they're not required. I don't think this would be terribly hard for someone to fix, I just wanted to point it out because I'm not going to fix it and it's a significant difference. Likewise there are a number of dependencies that in that series meson doesn't check for because they're not required for Vulkan. All that to say, I put all of those caveats there in the spirit of full disclosure, since you're correct, it's not a strictly apples to apples comparison.

[sdack]

No, it accurately compares the time it takes to build anv and radv from a clean directory. The meson script doesn't do as much because it's just an initial port for the vulkan drivers and autotools was set up to just build those in the comparison.

No. One could then compare a meson build to a tar extraction, because it, too, gives you a binary from a clean directory.

Only once the job (of creating a fully working meson build) is completed does it become a fair comparison. Until then is it a premature comparison between autotools and meson.

I find it hard to believe that this even needs an explanation.

[cl333r]

I find it hard to believe that this even needs an explanation.

You must be new to internet

[sdack]

You must be new to internet

It's the "bring a gun to school"-generation, making ultimate shortcuts to solving problems.

[starshipeleven]

It's the "bring a gun to school"-generation, making ultimate shortcuts to solving problems.

Well, that escalated quickly

[Azrael5]

Observing the benefit of this porting the change is desirable.