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Building and testing SpiderMonkey

=================================

**The first step is to run our “bootstrap” script to help ensure you have the

right build tools for your operating system. This will also help you get a copy

of the source code. You do not need to run the “mach build” command just yet

though.**

* :ref:`Building Firefox On Linux`

* :ref:`Building Firefox On Windows`

* :ref:`Building Firefox On MacOS`

This guide shows you how to build SpiderMonkey using ``mach``, which is

Mozilla's multipurpose build tool. This replaces old guides that advised

running the "configure" script directly.

These instructions assume you have a clone of `mozilla-unified` and are

interested in building the JS shell.

Developer (debug) build

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

For developing and debugging SpiderMonkey itself, it is best to have

both a debug build (for everyday debugging) and an optimized build (for

performance testing), in separate build directories. We'll start by

covering how to create a debug build.

Setting up a MOZCONFIG

-----------------------

First, we will create a ``MOZCONFIG`` file. This file describes the characteristics

of the build you'd like `mach` to create. Since it is likely you will have a

couple of ``MOZCONFIGs``, a directory like ``$HOME/mozconfigs`` is a useful thing to

have.

A basic ``MOZCONFIG`` file for doing a debug build, put into ``$HOME/mozconfigs/debug`` looks like this

.. code:: text

    # Build only the JS shell

    ac_add_options --enable-project=js

    # Enable the debugging tools: Assertions, debug only code etc.

    ac_add_options --enable-debug

    # Enable optimizations as well so that the test suite runs much faster. If

    # you are having trouble using a debugger, you should disable optimization.

    ac_add_options --enable-optimize

    # Use a dedicated objdir for SpiderMonkey debug builds to avoid

    # conflicting with Firefox build with default configuration.

    mk_add_options MOZ_OBJDIR=@TOPSRCDIR@/obj-debug-@CONFIG_GUESS@

To activate a particular ``MOZCONFIG``, set the environment variable:

.. code:: text

    export MOZCONFIG=$HOME/mozconfigs/debug

Building

--------

Once you have activated a ``MOZCONFIG`` by setting the environment variable

you can then ask ``mach``, located in the top directory of your checkout,

to do your build:

.. code:: console

    $ cd <path to mozilla-central>

    $ ./mach build

.. note::

   If you are on Mac and baldrdash fails to compile with something similar to

::

      /usr/local/Cellar/llvm/7.0.1/lib/clang/7.0.1/include/inttypes.h:30:15: fatal error: 'inttypes.h' file not found

   This is because, starting from Mojave, headers are no longer

   installed in ``/usr/include``. Refer the `release

   notes <https://developer.apple.com/documentation/xcode_release_notes/xcode_10_release_notes>`__ under

   Command Line Tools -> New Features

   The release notes also states that this compatibility package will no longer be provided in the near

   future, so the build system on macOS will have to be adapted to look for headers in the SDK

   Until then, the following should help,

::

      open /Library/Developer/CommandLineTools/Packages/macOS_SDK_headers_for_macOS_10.14.pk

Once you have successfully built the shell, you can run it using ``mach run``.

Testing

~~~~~~~

Once built, you can then use ``mach`` to run the ``jit-tests``:

.. code:: console

    $ ./mach jit-test

Similarly you can use also run ``jstests``. These include a local,

intermittently updated, copy of all `test262 <https://github.com/tc39/test262/>`_

tests.

.. code:: console

    $ ./mach jstests

See :doc:`Running Automated JavaScript Tests<test>` for more details.

Optimized Builds

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

To switch to an optimized build, such as for performance testing, one need only

have an optimized build ``MOZCONFIG``, and then activate it. An example

``$HOME/mozconfigs/optimized`` ``MOZCONFIG`` looks like this:

.. code:: text

    # Build only the JS shell

    ac_add_options --enable-project=js

    # Enable optimization for speed

    ac_add_options --enable-optimize

    # Disable debug checks to better match a release build of Firefox.

    ac_add_options --disable-debug

    # Use a separate objdir for optimized builds to allow easy

    # switching between optimized and debug builds while developing.

    mk_add_options MOZ_OBJDIR=@TOPSRCDIR@/obj-opt-@CONFIG_GUESS@

SpiderMonkey on Android aarch64

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Building SpiderMonkey on Android

--------------------------------

- First, run `mach bootstrap` and answer `GeckoView/Firefox for Android` when

  asked which project you want to build. This will download a recent Android

  NDK, make sure all the build dependencies required to compile on Android are

  present, etc.

- Make sure that `$MOZBUILD_DIR/android-sdk-linux/platform-tools` is present in

  your `PATH` environment. You can do this by running the following line in a

  shell, or adding it to a shell profile init file:

.. code:: console

    $ export PATH="$PATH:~/.mozbuild/android-sdk-linux/platform-tools"

- Create a typical `mozconfig` file for compiling SpiderMonkey, as outlined in

  the :ref:`Setting up a MOZCONFIG` documentation, and include the following

  line:

.. code:: console

    $ ac_add_options --target=aarch64-linux-android

- Then compile as usual with `mach build` with this `MOZCONFIG` file.

Running jit-tests on Android

----------------------------

- Plug your Android device to the machine which compiled the shell for aarch64

  as described above, or make sure it is on the same subnetwork as the host. It

  should appear in the list of devices seen by `adb`:

.. code:: console

    $ adb devices

This command should show you a device ID with the name of the device. If it

doesn't, make sure that you have enabled Developer options on your device, as

well as `enabled USB debugging on the device <https://developer.android.com/studio/debug/dev-options>`_.

- Run `mach jit-test --remote {JIT_TEST_ARGS}` with the android-aarch64

  `MOZCONFIG` file. This will upload the JS shell and its dependencies to the

  Android device, in a temporary directory (`/data/local/tmp/test_root/bin` as

  of 2020-09-02). Then it will start running the jit-test suite.

Debugging jit-tests on Android

------------------------------

Debugging on Android uses the GDB remote debugging protocol, so we'll set up a

GDB server on the Android device, that is going to be controlled remotely by

the host machine.

- Upload the `gdbserver` precompiled binary from the NDK from the host machine

  to the Android device, using this command on the host:

.. code:: console

    $ adb push \

        ~/.mozbuild/android-ndk-r23c/prebuilt/android-arm64/gdbserver/gdbserver \

        /data/local/tmp/test_root/bin

- Make sure that the `ncurses5` library is installed on the host. On

  Debian-like distros, this can be done with `sudo apt install -y libncurses5`.

- Set up port forwarding for the GDB port, from the Android device to the host,

  so we can connect to a local port from the host, without needing to find what

  the IP address of the Android device is:

.. code:: console

    $ adb forward tcp:5039 tcp:5039

- Start `gdbserver` on the phone, passing the JS shell command line arguments

  to gdbserver:

.. code:: console

    $ adb shell export LD_LIBRARY_PATH=/data/local/tmp/test_root/bin '&&' /data/local/tmp/test_root/bin/gdbserver :5039 /data/local/tmp/test_root/bin/js /path/to/test.js

.. note::

    Note this will make the gdbserver listen on the 5039 port on all the

    network interfaces. In particular, the gdbserver will be reachable from

    every other devices on the same networks as your phone. Since the gdbserver

    protocol is unsafe, it is strongly recommended to double-check that the

    gdbserver process has properly terminated when exiting the shell, and to

    not run it more than needed.

.. note::

    You can find the full command line that the `jit_test.py` script is

    using by giving it the `-s` parameter, and copy/paste it as the final

    argument to the gdbserver invocation above.

- On the host, start the precompiled NDK version of GDB that matches your host

  architecture, passing it the path to the shell compiled with `mach` above:

.. code:: console

    $ ~/.mozbuild/android-ndk-r23c/prebuilt/linux-x86_64/bin/gdb /path/to/objdir-aarch64-linux-android/dist/bin/js

- Then connect remotely to the GDB server that's listening on the Android

  device:

.. code:: console

    $(gdb) target remote :5039

    $(gdb) continue