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Glossary of terms used by the Mozilla build system

This document does not cover auxillary build systems such as the ones used by NSPR, NSS or LDAP.

Makefile variables

BUILD_SHARED_LIBS
Set By:configure / autoconf.mk
Used By:rules.mk
Purpose:Tells the build system that we want to build shared libraries by default
Other:Mutually exclusive with BUILD_STATIC_LIBS.

BUILD_STATIC_LIBS
Set By:configure / autoconf.mk
Used By:rules.mk
Purpose:Tells the build system that we want to build static libraries by default
Other:Mutually exclusive with BUILD_SHARED_LIBS.

EXPORT_LIBRARY
Set By:Module build makefiles
Used By:config.mk / rules.mk
Purpose:Specifies that the library should be linked directly against the binaries in a static build.
Other:Static build only.

EXTRA_DSO_LDOPTS
Set By:Module build makefiles
Used By:config.mk / rules.mk
Purpose:Extra libraries and linker flags necessary for building shared components. These flags are not used when statically linking a component (a static build or a meta-component).
Other:Dynamic build only.

EXTRA_DSO_LIBS
Set By:Module build makefiles (altered by rules.mk)
Used By:Module build makefiles
Purpose:This is a convenience variable. It is not used by rules.mk directly, but module makefiles may use it to expand library names and then include this variable in EXTRA_DSO_LDOPTS
Other:Dynamic build only.

FORCE_SHARED_LIB
Set By:Module build makefiles
Used By:config.mk / rules.mk
Purpose:Always build the shared library.
Other:If set, the build system will not build static libraries unless FORCE_STATIC_LIB is also set.

FORCE_STATIC_LIB
Set By:Module build makefiles
Used By:config.mk / rules.mk
Purpose:Always build the static library.
Other:If set, the build system will not build static libraries unless FORCE_SHARED_LIB is also set.

IS_COMPONENT
Set By:Module build makefiles
Used By:config.mk / rules.mk
Purpose:Signifies that the library being built is an XPCOM component.
Other:Used to determine additional compile and link flags as well as the installation location of the library.

LIBRARY_NAME
Set By:Module build makefiles
Used By:rules.mk
Purpose:Contains the basename of the library

MODULE_NAME
Set By:Module build makefiles
Used By:config.mk / rules.mk
Purpose:Contains the name of the xpcom module being built.
Other:Used by static builds to generate list of entry points for xpcom components. Must be the same name used by the NS_GETMODULE xpcom macro.

MODULE_OPTIMIZE_FLAGS
Set By:Makefiles
Used By:config.mk
Purpose:The default optimization level used to build the module.
Other:Is overriden by value passed to --enable-optimize.

REQUIRES
Set By:Makefiles
Used By:config.mk
Purpose:Contains the list of modules that the current module has build dependencies upon.
Other:Used to generate the list of include dirs used during compilation.

RUN_AUTOCONF_LOCALLY
Set By:User env / mozconfig
Used By:client.mk
Purpose:Force the regeneration of configure script after a cvs checkout.