[webkit-dev] Proposal to make Univ Binaries be part of standard build

[Dan Wood]

I have been trying to build recent TOT webkit builds as universal  
binaries by hacking the build-webkit script, with intermittent  
success.  Sometimes, the TOT will build OK as universal; other times,  
I get various build errors. (c.f. Bug 5905).

With Intel macs looming on the horizon, I think that it would be a  
good idea to try to keep TOT in good shape for building universal  
binaries, so that if something gets checked in that breaks the build,  
it gets marked as a regression and fixed quickly.

I know that some developers in webkit-land are doing their builds on  
PowerBooks, and adding the time to build universal EVERY time might  
not be a welcome change.  So I think it would make sense to have an  
option to the build-webkit script to be able to force only the native  
architecture to be built.  In fact, maybe for "Development" builds,  
it should always be native architecture; but the default for a  
"Deployment" build would be a universal binary.

While we're at it, I think it would be very handy to update the build  
script to include other options passed on the command line to the  
compiler.  (I suggested this in bug 5854).  I (along with others,  
like bdash for his nightly builds) need to set some other options  
(such as post-processing to strip the symbols), so it would be handy  
to be able to pass those into the build process without having to  
hack at the build script.

What to people think?  Is it time for Universal Builds to come of age?

Dan Wood
Karelia Software