Re: Open Source does not mean easily re-compile-able

Salvador Mirzo <smirzo@example.com> wrote:

If I were not full of tasks right now, I would set up a VM with Debian
and try it out---build-dep for Thunderbird.  Just to see if compiles
successfully without much hacking involved.  I am also skeptical of such
things.  It usually works on smaller projects; I'd be surprised and
happy to find out that it works with no hacking involved.

No need to be skeptical, we live in modern ages
where things have been made quite convenient for us.
Compiling Thunderbird should be very easy indeed
when we use Linux distro's package management.

I run Fedora Linux 41 xfce spin and I love it. If my
memory serves right, so far I have performed the
following steps:

1) Download the Thunderbird source RPM
dnf download --source thunderbird

2) Install the source RPM
rpm -Uvh thunderbird-128.5.2-1.fc41.src.rpm

3) Bump release from 2 to 3
vi ~/rpmbuild/SPECS/thunderbird.spec

4) Extract the tar.xz
tar xJf thunderbird-128.5.2esr.source.tar.xz

5) Edit function MsgReplyMessage to contain just "return;"

vi +/MsgReplyMessage thunderbird-128.5.2/comm/suite/mailnews/content/mailWindowOverlay.js

6) Recreate the tar.xz
tar cJf thunderbird-128.5.2esr.source.tar.xz thunderbird-128.5.2

7) Install all RPM build dependencies, letting dnf do the heavy lifting
dnf builddep ~/rpmbuild/SPECS/thunderbird.spec

8) Build Thunderbird binary RPM:

rpmbuild -bb ~/rpmbuild/SPECS/thunderbird.spec

Since Thunderbird is pretty huge, I am guessing that
the build will take some time to complete.

In Finland it is now 01:17 o'clock in the middle of the
night. Unfortunately I have to go to work tomorrow so
I must go to sleep at 2:00. I have no idea when the
build will be complete or whether my JavaScript hack
works or not.

br,
KK