What did I do?

Today, the indexing worked.

See the command here:

cvsindex -server=cvs -source=c:ffmozilla -symbols=c:symbolServer2007092823 -debug > output.txt

And the output.txt.

See how now it is indexing the files?! Cool.

So what did I do differently than last time?

Last Time:

ssindex.cmd [STATUS] : Server ini file: C:Program FilesDebugging Tools for Windowssdksrcsrvsrcsrv.ini
ssindex.cmd [STATUS] : Source root : c:ffmozilla
ssindex.cmd [STATUS] : Symbols root : c:ffmozillaobjdirdistcrashreporter-symbols2007092823
ssindex.cmd [STATUS] : Control system : CVS
ssindex.cmd [STATUS] : CVS Root : :pserver:anonymous@cvs-mirror.mozilla.org:/cvsroot
ssindex.cmd [STATUS] : CVS program name: cvs.exe
ssindex.cmd [STATUS] : CVS Label :
ssindex.cmd [STATUS] : CVS Date : 10/09/07
ssindex.cmd [STATUS] : Old path root :
ssindex.cmd [STATUS] : New path root :

This Time:

ssindex.cmd [WARN ] : Command line option “-server=cvs” is unrecognized.
——————————————————————————–
ssindex.cmd [STATUS] : Server ini file: C:Program FilesDebugging Tools for Windowssdksrcsrvsrcsrv.ini
ssindex.cmd [STATUS] : Source root : c:ffmozilla
ssindex.cmd [STATUS] : Symbols root : c:symbolServer2007092823
ssindex.cmd [STATUS] : Control system : CVS
ssindex.cmd [STATUS] : CVS Root : :pserver:anonymous@cvs-mirror.mozilla.org:/cvsroot
ssindex.cmd [STATUS] : CVS program name: cvs.exe
ssindex.cmd [STATUS] : CVS Label :
ssindex.cmd [STATUS] : CVS Date : 10/17/2007
ssindex.cmd [STATUS] : Old path root :
ssindex.cmd [STATUS] : New path root :

So really, the only differences between this time and last time is that I pointed to the symbols on my IIS symbolServer instead of the ones that were in the crashreport-symbols. Same symbols, different location. I think that must have made more of a difference than using -debug which did not seem to do anything (and that’s probably because I just re-read the documentation and it’s /debug).

Now I am going to test it and run some tools on the pdb files to see what’s in them.

I don’t know how many times I can read the 3 main sources of information about this source server business. Everytime I read them it’s like being in a house of mirrors. Tonight I found a new site that refers to a source server. Once again I hear how amazing this source server is, yet no real information about how to make it happen. His final sentence – “After all, “It just works!” Why would I need to know anything more? :-)” is just poking at me as I am so in need of knowing more and can’t find a single human being who knows more.

The main msdn help files state that:

Generally, binaries are source indexed during the build process after the application has been built. The information needed by source server is stored in the PDB files.

So does this mean that I need to add something to the firefox build files that will do this indexing around the same time that the buildsymbols are pulled? Around the time that the build wraps up? And if yes, then what do I put there? Why is there not ONE example of someone successfully writing a source server for their project? If this source server is so amazing (and it sure sounds like it will be) then why no examples? No discussion in the msdn community forums, no blogs, nothing.

I emailed a person who sounded like they had written one for their versioning system, he wrote back and said that it actually wasn’t him, it was another team member.

Is the source server really an urban legend? Has *anyone* seen it in action?

Is done.

First attempt lead to error messages about the malformed or non-existent install.rdf file. Well, I knew it existed because I brought it into existence. So I looked around the other mozilla documents and made a replacement install.rdf – no error.

After this point though, I hit a wall because I could install the extension and yet the tabs weren’t being added to the side. So I checked the Error Console, no errors related to the addtabbeside extension. After entering some dump() messages in the addtabbeside.js file I try again, starting ff with -console. Nothing to go on.

Anyway, a while later I found mullin on IRC and we troubleshooted it. He knew that the xml spacing is all messed up with you copy and paste from the wiki – I started from scratch paying closer attention to the indentation and voila!

So what I have learned from this is to be careful of indentation when I copy and paste. I look forward to my next extension, when I can really get deeper into modifying the browser, like menu items and whatnot.