[DERBY-4841] Improve projecthelp for the top level Derby build script

• Type: Improvement
• Status: Closed
• Priority: Major
• Resolution: Fixed
• Affects Version/s: 10.7.1.1
• Fix Version/s: 10.10.1.1
• Component/s: Build tools
• Assignee: Unassigned
• Reporter: Richard N. Hillegas
• Created: 12/Oct/10 15:32
• Updated: 15/Mar/13 13:50
• Resolved: 15/Mar/13 13:50

Description

Ant scripts are supposed to be self-describing. The following command is supposed to describe the public targets in the current directory:

ant -projecthelp

Here is the output of this command for the top level build script today:

Main targets:

checkCompilerLevel Make sure compiler level is Java 5 level or higher.
class_size_catalog create the class size catalog – a java file
createBranch Create a new branch (both docs and code)
parsers Build the parsers
release Build the release distributions
setCompilerProperties Set the ant variables which identify the compiler classpaths. Remove the autosetProps logic when this target becomes mandatory.
setInitialProperties Set the initial properties for this build script. This duplicates the property setting block in setCompilerProperties. Once we make setCompilerProperties mandatory, this target should be removed.
state Build SanityState.java
Default target: buildsource

That does not seem like the list of public targets to me. This JIRA can be used as a place to anchor work which we do on improving the user documentation for our top level build script.

I propose to make some changes to build.xml. Others are welcome to pile on. Here's how it works:

1) The public targets are the ones which have "description" attributes.

2) So to make a target public, fill in a "description" attribute for it.

3) And to hide a target, move its "description" text into an introductory comment bracketed by "<!-" and "->"

Issue Links

• relates to: DERBY-4845 Improve the dependency tracking for our build targets