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Extract Bootstrap into its own section (#1939)
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* Extract Bootstrap into its own section

Add brief explanation for `Step` and `Builder::ensure` as core
Bootstrap internal concepts.

* Drop common commands page (use `x --help` instead)

* Add `make` as an alternative entry point

* Add src/bootstrap/README.md link
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jieyouxu authored Mar 13, 2024
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8 changes: 6 additions & 2 deletions src/SUMMARY.md
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- [with Windows Performance Analyzer](./profiling/wpa_profiling.md)
- [crates.io Dependencies](./crates-io.md)


# Contributing to Rust

- [Contribution Procedures](./contributing.md)
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- [Licenses](./licenses.md)
- [Editions](guides/editions.md)

# Bootstrapping

- [Prologue](./building/bootstrapping/intro.md)
- [What Bootstrapping does](./building/bootstrapping/what-bootstrapping-does.md)
- [How Bootstrap does it](./building/bootstrapping/how-bootstrap-does-it.md)

# High-level Compiler Architecture

- [Prologue](./part-2-intro.md)
- [Overview of the compiler](./overview.md)
- [The compiler source code](./compiler-src.md)
- [Bootstrapping](./building/bootstrapping.md)
- [Queries: demand-driven compilation](./query.md)
- [The Query Evaluation Model in Detail](./queries/query-evaluation-model-in-detail.md)
- [Incremental compilation](./queries/incremental-compilation.md)
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51 changes: 51 additions & 0 deletions src/building/bootstrapping/how-bootstrap-does-it.md
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# How Bootstrap does it

The core concept in Bootstrap is a build [`Step`], which are chained together
by [`Builder::ensure`]. [`Builder::ensure`] takes a [`Step`] as input, and runs
the [`Step`] if and only if it has not already been run. Let's take a closer
look at [`Step`].

## Synopsis of [`Step`]

A [`Step`] represents a granular collection of actions involved in the process
of producing some artifact. It can be thought of like a rule in Makefiles.
The [`Step`] trait is defined as:

```rs,no_run
pub trait Step: 'static + Clone + Debug + PartialEq + Eq + Hash {
type Output: Clone;
const DEFAULT: bool = false;
const ONLY_HOSTS: bool = false;
// Required methods
fn run(self, builder: &Builder<'_>) -> Self::Output;
fn should_run(run: ShouldRun<'_>) -> ShouldRun<'_>;
// Provided method
fn make_run(_run: RunConfig<'_>) { ... }
}
```

- `run` is the function that is responsible for doing the work.
[`Builder::ensure`] invokes `run`.
- `should_run` is the command-line interface, which determines if an invocation
such as `x build foo` should run a given [`Step`]. In a "default" context
where no paths are provided, then `make_run` is called directly.
- `make_run` is invoked only for things directly asked via the CLI and not
for steps which are dependencies of other steps.

## The entry points

There's a couple of preliminary steps before core Bootstrap code is reached:

1. Shell script or `make`: [`./x`](https://github.com/rust-lang/rust/blob/master/x) or [`./x.ps1`](https://github.com/rust-lang/rust/blob/master/x.ps1) or `make`
2. Convenience wrapper script: [`x.py`](https://github.com/rust-lang/rust/blob/master/x.py)
3. [`src/bootstrap/bootstrap.py`](https://github.com/rust-lang/rust/blob/master/src/bootstrap/bootstrap.py)
4. [`src/bootstrap/src/bin/main.rs`](https://github.com/rust-lang/rust/blob/master/src/bootstrap/src/bin/main.rs)

See [src/bootstrap/README.md](https://github.com/rust-lang/rust/blob/master/src/bootstrap/README.md)
for a more specific description of the implementation details.

[`Step`]: https://doc.rust-lang.org/nightly/nightly-rustc/bootstrap/core/builder/trait.Step.html
[`Builder::ensure`]: https://doc.rust-lang.org/nightly/nightly-rustc/bootstrap/core/builder/struct.Builder.html#method.ensure
21 changes: 21 additions & 0 deletions src/building/bootstrapping/intro.md
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# Bootstrapping the compiler

[*Bootstrapping*][boot] is the process of using a compiler to compile itself.
More accurately, it means using an older compiler to compile a newer version
of the same compiler.

This raises a chicken-and-egg paradox: where did the first compiler come from?
It must have been written in a different language. In Rust's case it was
[written in OCaml][ocaml-compiler]. However it was abandoned long ago and the
only way to build a modern version of rustc is a slightly less modern
version.

This is exactly how `x.py` works: it downloads the current beta release of
rustc, then uses it to compile the new compiler.

In this section, we give a high-level overview of
[what Bootstrap does](./what-bootstrapping-does.md), followed by a high-level
introduction to [how Bootstrap does it](./how-bootstrap-does-it.md).

[boot]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bootstrapping_(compilers)
[ocaml-compiler]: https://github.com/rust-lang/rust/tree/ef75860a0a72f79f97216f8aaa5b388d98da6480/src/boot
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# Bootstrapping the compiler
# What Bootstrapping does

<!-- toc -->

[*Bootstrapping*][boot] is the process of using a compiler to compile itself.
More accurately, it means using an older compiler to compile a newer version
of the same compiler.

This raises a chicken-and-egg paradox: where did the first compiler come from?
It must have been written in a different language. In Rust's case it was
[written in OCaml][ocaml-compiler]. However it was abandoned long ago and the
only way to build a modern version of rustc is a slightly less modern
version.

This is exactly how `x.py` works: it downloads the current beta release of
rustc, then uses it to compile the new compiler.

Note that this documentation mostly covers user-facing information. See
[bootstrap/README.md][bootstrap-internals] to read about bootstrap internals.

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