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Date: Wed, 31 Aug 2022 10:42:22 +0200
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Subject: Re: [RFC] building postgres with meson - v11
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To: Andres Freund <andres@anarazel.de>
Cc: pgsql-hackers@postgresql.org, samay sharma <smilingsamay@gmail.com>,
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From: Peter Eisentraut <peter.eisentraut@enterprisedb.com>
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On 24.08.22 17:30, Andres Freund wrote:
>> 0545eec895 meson: Add docs
>>
>> We should think more about how to arrange the documentation.  We
>> probably don't want to copy-and-paste all the introductory and
>> requirements information.  I think we can make this initially much
>> briefer, like the Windows installation chapter.  For example, instead
>> of documenting each setup option again, just mention which ones exist
>> and then point (link) to the configure chapter for details.
> The current docs, including the windows ones, are already hard to follow. I
> think we should take some care to not make the meson bits even more
> confusing. Cross referencing left and right seems problematic from that angle.

If you look at the current structure of the installation chapter

17.1. Short Version
17.2. Requirements
17.3. Getting the Source
17.4. Installation Procedure
17.5. Post-Installation Setup
17.6. Supported Platforms
17.7. Platform-Specific Notes

only 17.1, small parts of 12.2, and 17.4 should differ between make and 
meson.  There is no conceivable reason why the meson installation 
chapter should have a different "Getting the Source" section.  And some 
of the post-installation and platform-specific information doesn't 
appear at all on the meson chapter.

I think we can try to be a bit more ingenious in how we weave this 
together in the best way.  What I really wouldn't want is two separate 
chapters that duplicate the entire process.  I think we could do one 
chapter, like

- Short Version
- Requirements
- Getting the Source
- Installation Procedure
- Installation Procedure using Meson
- Post-Installation Setup
- Supported Platforms
- Platform-Specific Notes

Alternatively, if people prefer two separate chapters, let's think about 
some source-code level techniques to share the common contents.