[dpdk-dev] [PATCH v12 01/14] build: alias default build as generic

[Bruce Richardson]

On Mon, Nov 16, 2020 at 03:50:31PM +0000, Juraj Linkeš wrote:
> 
> 
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: Thomas Monjalon <thomas at monjalon.net>
> > Sent: Monday, November 16, 2020 8:33 AM
> > To: Juraj Linkeš <juraj.linkes at pantheon.tech>
> > Cc: bruce.richardson at intel.com; Ruifeng.Wang at arm.com;
> > Honnappa.Nagarahalli at arm.com; Phil.Yang at arm.com;
> > vcchunga at amazon.com; Dharmik.Thakkar at arm.com; jerinjacobk at gmail.com;
> > hemant.agrawal at nxp.com; ajit.khaparde at broadcom.com;
> > ferruh.yigit at intel.com; dev at dpdk.org
> > Subject: Re: [dpdk-dev] [PATCH v12 01/14] build: alias default build as generic
> > 
> > 13/11/2020 15:31, Juraj Linkeš:
> > > The current machine='default' build name is not descriptive. The
> > > actual default build is machine='native'. Add an alternative string
> > > which does the same build and better describes what we're building:
> > > machine='generic'. Leave machine='default' for backwards compatibility.
> > 
> > What?
> > 
> > "generic" means... nothing.
> > 
> 
> An absence of anything means nothing. Generic means "characteristic of or relating to a class or group of things; not specific", which is pretty much what we're looking for.
> 
> > "default" should be the most common set of options to make a build work
> > everywhere.
> 
> What we want is a value of machine that would "be the most common set of options to make a build work everywhere" and using the above definition of generic, it fits very well.
> The reason I said the actual default build is machine='native' is because that's how the machine option is defined in meson_options.txt. It follows from what default actually means - "a preselected option adopted by a computer program or other mechanism when no alternative is specified by the user or programmer". Default then means no user input, which means machine='native', which means the default build is the default build.
> 
> What ""default" should mean" looks like an attempt at redefining what the word actually means and leads to confusion, in my experience. Hence an attempt to remove the potential ambiguity.
> 

I would tend to agree that "generic" is probably a better term than
"default" for what we use it for here in the config.

/Bruce