id	summary	reporter	owner	description	type	status	priority	milestone	component	version	resolution	keywords	cc
326	New way to designate recompile-only files in an mbuild build directory	Gary Dixon	Eric Swenson	"When changing an include file, it can sometimes become difficult to distinguish between file groups in the build directory:
- original content files that have actually been modified
- source files which are present only to trigger a recompile of that source to pick up changes to an include segment.  The source file itself remains unmodified.

Presence of such unmodified source in build directory can therefore have ambiguous meaning to the developer, and perhaps to the auditor.  Are such files:
- Remnants of a source file that was investigated for a change, but determined that no change was needed (and no recompile of the object was needed, either).  Its presence in build directory would then be a developer oversight.
- Recompile-only source file that are present in build directory only to trigger compiling its object component, and binding/install of bound_object segment or unbound segment.  These unmodified sources tend to clutter up actual changes being made in other sources, etc.

To distinguish between these two cases, the recompile-only segment could appear in the build directory as a link, with its link target being the actual unmodified source file in a “recompile” subdirectory below the build directory.  

This seems like a reasonable approach, but doesn’t work well with current mbuild.  mbuild intentionally ignores links in the build directory, because such links are usually links to test programs or test scripts or other bound segment versions needed to test out the changes being developed in that build directory.  

That is, mbuild considers any links as irrelevant to the changes being developed in the build directory (unless they are links to include files, which the compilers would chase through if a source in the build directory references that include seg name).

mbuild should be enhanced to support the strategy above for designating recompile-only source files in the build directory.

"	enhancement	closed	major		Tools	MR12.8	duplicate