On Sep 1, 2020, at 4:35 PM, Matthew Carlson <matthewfcarlson@...> wrote:

Hello all,

A recent topic on the RFC mailing list went out and the work on moving Basetools/Sources/Python to a separate repo has started. See the RFC conversation here: https://edk2.groups.io/g/rfc/topic/74009714#270

The repo in question is here: https://github.com/tianocore/edk2-basetools

The current plan is shortly after the stable tag is created, a series of patches will come into edk2 that redirects the build system into the new python module as well as adds additional documentation. You can see a sample of this work here: https://github.com/matthewfcarlson/edk2 as this has a branch that has the work required to use the basetools pip module. The patches won't delete the Basetools/Sources/Python folder but will allow users to select between them. After a certain grace period, the python folder will be deleted and the pip module will be the de facto way of using basetools.

Three questions need to be answered:

1. After the patches that enable the pip module land, how long should the grace period be?
2. During the grace period, should basetools commits land in both places or just in the edk2-basetools directory?
3. How should the user be able to select which basetools to use (the one in EDK2 or the pip module)? Currently the approach being considered is a simple environmental variable? One of the key considerations is transparency since it won't be apparent what is being used for a particular build without some sort of mechanism to notify the developer. With two seperate versions of Basetools, it becomes very easy for the version of basetools you're using to not be the one you expect.

Matthew,

I’ll throw out some current developer centric ideas.

1) If you `source edksetup.sh` (edksetup.bat) you get the current behavior, and you add an argument you get the pip flavor? So maybe `edksetup.bat pip-basetools`?
2) We have similar issues to this with env variables and the build command dumps them out when it runs. Can we use the current EDK_TOOL_PATH? Or maybe add an extra print to show that the pip module is being used?

Thanks,

Andrew Fish

Thank you.
-Matthew Carlson