Out-of-tree builds are not tested.

[ericsnowcurrently]

BPO	45695
Nosy	@gvanrossum, @gpshead, @tiran, @ericsnowcurrently, @zooba, @erlend-aasland
PRs	bpo-45695: Test out-of-tree builds on GHA (GH-29904) #29904

^{Note: these values reflect the state of the issue at the time it was migrated and might not reflect the current state.}

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GitHub fields:

assignee = 'https://github.com/gpshead'
closed_at = None
created_at = <Date 2021-11-02.23:29:45.063>
labels = ['build', '3.10', '3.11']
title = 'Out-of-tree builds are not tested.'
updated_at = <Date 2021-12-04.10:08:03.694>
user = 'https://github.com/ericsnowcurrently'

bugs.python.org fields:

activity = <Date 2021-12-04.10:08:03.694>
actor = 'christian.heimes'
assignee = 'gregory.p.smith'
closed = False
closed_date = None
closer = None
components = ['Build']
creation = <Date 2021-11-02.23:29:45.063>
creator = 'eric.snow'
dependencies = []
files = []
hgrepos = []
issue_num = 45695
keywords = ['patch']
message_count = 7.0
messages = ['405568', '405572', '405573', '407591', '407594', '407595', '407652']
nosy_count = 6.0
nosy_names = ['gvanrossum', 'gregory.p.smith', 'christian.heimes', 'eric.snow', 'steve.dower', 'erlendaasland']
pr_nums = ['29904']
priority = 'normal'
resolution = None
stage = 'patch review'
status = 'open'
superseder = None
type = None
url = 'https://bugs.python.org/issue45695'
versions = ['Python 3.10', 'Python 3.11']

[ericsnowcurrently]

Currently we don't test builds done outside the source tree, neither on GitHub nor the buildbots. [1] As a result, such builds get broken occasionally. I've certainly broken then a couple times, inadvertently. It would be helpful if we tested out-of-tree builds on GitHub, or at least on a stable buildbot.

FTR, to do an out-of-tree build locally and test it:

mkdir ../build
cd ../build
../cpython/configure
make
./python -m test

[1] Actually I recently added test.test_tools.test_freeze.TestFreeze.test_freeze_simple_script which happens to do an out-of-tree build incidentally. However, we should be testing out-of-tree builds explicitly.

[zooba]

FTR, I used to run all Windows builds out of tree on Azure Pipelines, but too many tests broke so I reverted it:

cpython/.azure-pipelines/windows-steps.yml

Lines 7 to 10 in 456e27a

	# Relocate build outputs outside of source directory to make cleaning faster
	Write-Host '##vso[task.setvariable variable=Py_IntDir]$(Build.BinariesDirectory)\obj'
	# UNDONE: Do not build to a different directory because of broken tests
	Write-Host '##vso[task.setvariable variable=Py_OutDir]$(Build.SourcesDirectory)\PCbuild'

Setting $env:Py_OutDir before building is the easiest way to change it. You can also pass "/p:Py_OutDir=<path>" to build.bat, but you'll run into quoting issues almost immediately.

[gpshead]

I always do out of tree builds _(I find people who build anything in tree to be very weird - it makes a mess)_.

I intend to look into making sure a Linux buildbot runs this way but don't let that stop anyone else from doing so.

[tiran]

Good news: I got a test case for OOT build with read-only sources

Bad news: 15 test cases are failing and testing takes much longer because pyc files are missing.

15 re-run tests:
test__xxsubinterpreters test_ast test_bdb test_capi test_doctest
test_import test_importlib test_interpreters test_pickle
test_pydoc test_runpy test_support test_threading test_trace
test_unicodedata

We have to live with read-only OOT builds and writable tests for now.

[gpshead]

Nice trick with that RO bind mount. tests... yes we do have some writable source tree messes in there to be dealt with.

[erlend-aasland]

FWIW, it is also impossible to build the docs OOT without cluttering the source tree.

    $ cd ../build
    $ make -C ../cpython.git/Doc venv
    $ make -C ../cpython.git/Doc html  # <= modifies Doc/build in the source tree

[tiran]

New changeset cee07b1 by Christian Heimes in branch 'main':
bpo-45695: Test out-of-tree builds on GHA (GH-29904)
cee07b1