Re: Why does pg_bsd_indent need to be installed?

Hi,

On 2023-05-25 09:09:45 -0400, Tom Lane wrote:
> Peter Eisentraut <peter@eisentraut.org> writes:
> > Why does pgindent require that pg_bsd_indent be installed in the path? 
> > Couldn't pgindent call the pg_bsd_indent built inside the tree?  That 
> > would make the whole process much smoother.
> 
> Well, the current expectation is that you run it in a distclean'd
> tree, in which case it won't be there.  VPATH builds would have
> a problem finding it as well.
>
> I'm not sure if there's any problem in applying it in a built-out
> tree, but the VPATH scenario seems like a problem in any case,
> especially since (IIUC) meson builds have to be done that way.

Isn't the situation actually *easier* in VPATH builds? There's no build
artifacts in the source tree, so you can just invoke the pg_bsd_indent built
in the build directory against the source tree, without any problems?

I'd like to add a build system target for reindenting with the in-tree
pg_bsd_indent, obviously with the right dependencies to build pg_bsd_indent
first.

And yes, meson only supports building in a separate directory (which obviously
can be inside the source directory, although I don't do that, because the
autoconf vpath build copies such directories, which isn't fun).

Greetings,

Andres Freund