Collin Funk wrote:
> > --create-megatestdir with all modules is not realistic: it would consume
> > hundreds of GB of disk space and maybe a week of run time.
> >
> > --create-megatestdir is useful for a small set of modules, in particular
> > for 2 modules, e.g. fnmatch-posix and fnmatch-gnu.
>
> I see, thanks. I think I tried --create-megatestdir a while ago and
> gave up because it took along time. I assume there were much less
> modules when this was written:
>
>
> https://git.savannah.gnu.org/cgit/gnulib.git/tree/doc/build-automation.texi#n34
Yes. When this text was written (on 2007-03-12), gnulib had 659 modules.
Now it has 3214 modules.
I'm updating the doc:
2024-03-03 Bruno Haible <br...@clisp.org>
doc: Update regarding --create-megatestdir.
Reported by Alexei Sholomitskiy <asholomitski...@gmail.com> in
<https://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/bug-gnulib/2023-07/msg00071.html>
and by Collin Funk <collin.fu...@gmail.com> in
<https://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/bug-gnulib/2024-03/msg00007.html>.
* doc/build-automation.texi (Building gnulib): Discourage the use of
--create-megatestdir with all modules.
diff --git a/doc/build-automation.texi b/doc/build-automation.texi
index bff5daf283..250723e717 100644
--- a/doc/build-automation.texi
+++ b/doc/build-automation.texi
@@ -28,10 +28,19 @@
git checkout, use
@example
-gnulib-tool --create-megatestdir --with-tests --dir=...
+gnulib-tool --create-testdir --with-tests --dir=...
@end example
-Note: The created directory uses ca. 512 MB on disk.
+Alternatively, pick a small set of modules and run
+
+@example
+gnulib-tool --create-megatestdir --with-tests --dir=... autobuild MODULES
+@end example
+
+@noindent
+(You can't do this will all of Gnulib at once: @code{gnulib-tool} would run
+for a week and produce a directory that takes more than 100 GB, maybe even 1
TB,
+of disk space.)
@item Transfer gnulib directory
