Closed Bug 1196793 Opened 9 years ago Closed 9 years ago

Improve documentation for building, running, testing, and debugging Firefox for Android

Categories

(Firefox for Android Graveyard :: General, defect)

defect
Not set
normal

Tracking

(Not tracked)

RESOLVED WORKSFORME

People

(Reporter: gbrown, Assigned: gbrown)

References

Details

https://wiki.mozilla.org/Mobile/Fennec/Android has all the information, but its length and complexity is intimidating for someone new to the environment. Following up on concerns from bug 1164596, I specifically want to lower barriers for Firefox for Desktop developers who want to run and debug tests on Android. I also worry about the discoverability (or even rememberability!) of https://wiki.mozilla.org/Mobile/Fennec/Android. Should something be on MDN?
I think (but need to verify) it's possible to go from zero-to-mochitest with just: hg clone http://hg.mozilla.org/mozilla-central/ ./mach bootstrap (select "Firefox for Android"; update mozconfig as instructed by bootstrap) ./mach build ./mach package connect device or ./mach emulator ./mach install ./mach mochitest
Consider what's been done for desktop builds: https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Mozilla/Developer_guide/Build_Instructions -> "For the impatient": https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Simple_Firefox_build Also note that the MDN Build_Instructions (and other) pages refer back to https://wiki.mozilla.org/Mobile/Fennec/Android for Android.
Bug 1195691 is a significant, temporary, hopefully short-lived barrier to building Firefox for Android for the uninitiated. See https://mail.mozilla.org/pipermail/mobile-firefox-dev/2015-August/001401.html and https://mobile.etherpad.mozilla.org/109.
:liuche recently simplified and re-organized https://wiki.mozilla.org/Mobile/Fennec/Android -- great stuff.
I updated https://wiki.mozilla.org/Mobile/Fennec/Android/Testing, trying to emphasize simple test execution through mach. Feedback welcome.
Depends on: 1087791
I'm happy with the documentation now. https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Mozilla/Developer_guide/Build_Instructions points to https://wiki.mozilla.org/Mobile/Fennec/Android, which provides step-by-step instructions for building and installing Firefox for Android. That wiki page points to https://wiki.mozilla.org/Mobile/Fennec/Android/Testing, a separate page with detailed testing instructions + a quick summary of supported mach test commands. Finally, https://wiki.mozilla.org/Mobile/Fennec/Android/GDB has detailed information on JimDB + a summary showing how to run JimDB simply via mach. Thanks again to everyone who helped out here.
Status: NEW → RESOLVED
Closed: 9 years ago
Resolution: --- → WORKSFORME
Awesome work gbrown! I really, really appreciate you attacking this issue with such thoroughness and vigor. I'd suggest also emailing dev-platform and letting developers know that it should now be significantly easier to debug android test failures locally.
Product: Firefox for Android → Firefox for Android Graveyard
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