Remove xabuild from being installed

[harry-cpp]

The xabuild script is really only useful if you want to compile XA project without installing XA into system, if you are already installing it into system, calling xbuild/msbuild works just fine.

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[jonpryor]

if you are already installing it into system, calling xbuild/msbuild works just fine.

Therein lines the problem/question: xbuild/msbuild only works if you run:

make install prefix=/usr

For any other $(prefix) value, this analysis is (probably) incorrect.

That doesn't directly answer what should be done. Arguably, PR #253 should take this logic to heart and not install /usr/bin/xabuild. However, what should be done in this PR?

My current gut feeling -- without too much additional thought -- is that if $(prefix)/bin/mono exists, then xabuild should not be installed. Otherwise, it should be installed.

[harry-cpp]

My question then is why would you want to install it in a directory where xbuild/msbuild will not pick it up?

[jonpryor]

My question then is why would you want to install it in a directory where xbuild/msbuild will not pick it up?

Side-by-side installs. There Can Be Only One installation into an msbuild/xbuild-accessible location (unless you have multiple mono installs...). xabuild will set things up to force an in-$PATH xbuild/msbuild to use the paths of the installation associated with xabuild.

For example:

$ make install prefix=/tmp/testing
$ xbuild samples/HelloWorld/HelloWorld.csproj
# will fail; `$(MSBuildExtensionsPath)\Xamarin\Android\Xamarin.Android.CSharp.targets` doesn't exist

$ /tmp/testing/bin/xabuild samples/HelloWorld/HelloWorld.csproj
# should work

[harry-cpp]

True, but they could just call xbuild with few extra arguments if they need to. xabuild is just a wrapper for xbuild that I don't think should get installed in the system.

How about adding an extra argument that allows you to switch installing xabuild if you want to?

[jonpryor]

they could just call xbuild with few extra arguments if they need to.

Extra arguments are extra complexity, in terms of documentation.

Then again, I want to argue for more magic...which requires more documentation. Hm...

What I'm thinking is, instead of removing:

cp tools/scripts/xabuild "$(prefix)/bin/xabuild"

Change it to:

if [ ! -e "$(prefix)/bin/mono" ] ; then \
  cp tools/scripts/xabuild "$(prefix)/bin/xabuild"
fi

This would allow make install prefix=/usr to not create /usr/bin/xabuild, but other prefixes would install it.

[harry-cpp]

Yea, I got what you requested, I was asking if adding an additional argument variable would have been better.... anyway done :|

[borgdylan]

My active mono install is in usr/local. That would break my install. xabuild is quite a useful wrapper and allows XA to change defaults and certain installation details without breaking already existing projects. The more useful action would have been to reject this PR entirely. It would be an extra hassle to keep setting environment variables to the android sdk as well as set the extensions path, which the script already does.

[harry-cpp]

It would be an extra hassle to keep setting environment variables to the android sdk as well as set the extensions path, which the script already does.

There is a way of auto setting XA environmental variables for msbuild/xbuild, create file "~/.config/xbuild/monodroid-config.xml" with the following contents:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<monodroid>
	<android-sdk path="/path/to/your/Android/Sdk" />
  
	<!-- Only needs specifying in case one of them is not found in default location -->
	<!-- android-ndk path="" -->
	<!-- java-sdk path="" -->
</monodroid>