Add test and release notes.

docs/markdown/Release-notes-for-0.41.0.md

@@ -38,3 +38,18 @@ pkg.generate(libraries : libs,
              description : 'A simple demo library.',
              variables : ['datadir=${prefix}/data'])
 ```
+
+## A target for creating tarballs
+
+Creating distribution tarballs is simple:
+
+    ninja dist
+
+This will create a `.tar.xz` archive of the source code including
+submodules without any revision control information. This command also
+verifies that the resulting archive can be built, tested and
+installed. This is roughly equivalent to the `distcheck` target in
+other build systems. Currently this only works for projects using Git
+and only with the Ninja backend.
+
+

mesonbuild/scripts/dist.py

@@ -98,7 +98,7 @@ def check_dist(packagename, meson_command):
         tf = tarfile.open(packagename)
         tf.extractall(unpackdir)
         srcdir = glob(os.path.join(unpackdir, '*'))[0]
-        if subprocess.call(meson_command + [srcdir, builddir]) != 0:
+        if subprocess.call(meson_command + ['--backend=ninja', srcdir, builddir]) != 0:
             print('Running Meson on distribution package failed')
             return 1
         if subprocess.call([ninja_bin], cwd=builddir) != 0:

run_unittests.py

@@ -331,6 +331,7 @@ class BasePlatformTests(unittest.TestCase):
         self.prefix = '/usr'
         self.libdir = os.path.join(self.prefix, 'lib')
         self.installdir = os.path.join(self.builddir, 'install')
+        self.distdir = os.path.join(self.builddir, 'meson-dist')
         # Get the backend
         # FIXME: Extract this from argv?
         self.backend = getattr(Backend, os.environ.get('MESON_UNIT_TEST_BACKEND', 'ninja'))
@@ -1065,6 +1066,47 @@ class AllPlatformTests(BasePlatformTests):
         self.build()
         self.run_tests()
 
+    def test_dist(self):
+        if not shutil.which('git'):
+            raise unittest.SkipTest('Git not found')
+        try:
+            self.dist_impl()
+        except PermissionError:
+            # When run under Windows CI, something (virus scanner?)
+            # holds on to the git files so cleaning up the dir
+            # fails sometimes.
+            pass
+
+    def dist_impl(self):
+        # Create this on the fly because having rogue .git directories inside
+        # the source tree leads to all kinds of trouble.
+        with tempfile.TemporaryDirectory() as project_dir:
+            with open(os.path.join(project_dir, 'meson.build'), 'w') as ofile:
+                ofile.write('''project('disttest', 'c', version : '1.4.3')
+e = executable('distexe', 'distexe.c')
+test('dist test', e)
+''')
+            with open(os.path.join(project_dir, 'distexe.c'), 'w') as ofile:
+                ofile.write('''#include<stdio.h>
+
+int main(int argc, char **argv) {
+    printf("I am a distribution test.\\n");
+    return 0;
+}
+''')
+            subprocess.check_call(['git', 'init'], cwd=project_dir)
+            subprocess.check_call(['git', 'config',
+                                   'user.name', 'Author Person'], cwd=project_dir)
+            subprocess.check_call(['git', 'config',
+                                   'user.email', 'teh_coderz@example.com'], cwd=project_dir)
+            subprocess.check_call(['git', 'add', 'meson.build', 'distexe.c'], cwd=project_dir)
+            subprocess.check_call(['git', 'commit', '-a', '-m', 'I am a project'], cwd=project_dir)
+            self.init(project_dir)
+            self.build('dist')
+            distfile = os.path.join(self.distdir, 'disttest-1.4.3.tar.xz')
+            checksumfile = distfile + '.sha256sum'
+            self.assertTrue(os.path.exists(distfile))
+            self.assertTrue(os.path.exists(checksumfile))
 
 class WindowsTests(BasePlatformTests):
     '''