toolchain.configure checks for information about the compilers we're
using and accumulates additional flags that we might need to
pass (e.g. switches for C/C++ versions, proper compiler targets, etc.),
and then rechecks the compilers with those additional flags to verify
that those flags are sufficient to configure the compiler properly.
Only after we've checked for the proper flags do we move on to verifying
the compiler versions are sufficient.
It's possible, however, that the flags we try to add might not be
supported by the compiler being tested, in which case we'd get an
unfriendly error about an "unknown compiler", rather than something like
"version X of Y not supported". In this case, we'd rather use the
information we gathered from the first run to provide information
messages. So we modify the second check to ignore any thrown exceptions
during the check itself.
This change results in another problem: the check for whether we had any
extraneous flags is done prior to version checks for the compilers we
support, which is also unhelpful. We choose to move this check after
the version checks themselves.
An explanation of the Mozilla Source Code Directory Structure and links to
project pages with documentation can be found at:
https://developer.mozilla.org/en/Mozilla_Source_Code_Directory_Structure
For information on how to build Mozilla from the source code, see:
https://developer.mozilla.org/en/docs/Build_Documentation
To have your bug fix / feature added to Mozilla, you should create a patch and
submit it to Bugzilla (https://bugzilla.mozilla.org). Instructions are at:
https://developer.mozilla.org/en/docs/Creating_a_patch
https://developer.mozilla.org/en/docs/Getting_your_patch_in_the_tree
If you have a question about developing Mozilla, and can't find the solution
on https://developer.mozilla.org, you can try asking your question in a
mozilla.* Usenet group, or on IRC at irc.mozilla.org. [The Mozilla news groups
are accessible on Google Groups, or news.mozilla.org with a NNTP reader.]
You can download nightly development builds from the Mozilla FTP server.
Keep in mind that nightly builds, which are used by Mozilla developers for
testing, may be buggy. Firefox nightlies, for example, can be found at:
https://archive.mozilla.org/pub/firefox/nightly/latest-mozilla-central/
- or -
https://nightly.mozilla.org/