Local Gecko builds are not used by default when building a package

[felipeerias]

In our current build configuration, the local Gecko build is not actually used when building a package.

Here is a detailed explanation:

The group of dependencies under org.mozilla.geckoview contains several modules, which we define in the file versions.gradle.

For example, for ARM64 there is a "nightly" module geckoview-nightly-arm64-v8a and a "release" module geckoview-arm64-v8a.

In the project's build.gradle, we select one of those variants. At the moment, by default we use the "release" module geckoview-arm64-v8a:

    def branch = "release" // "release", "nightly" or "beta"
    geckoImplementation deps.gecko_view."${branch}_x86_64"
    geckoImplementation deps.gecko_view."${branch}_arm64"

However, we also support local Gecko builds. In order to do that, we call a script provided by Gecko: substitute-local-geckoview.gradle

This script replaces dependencies to Gecko modules with the local Gecko build. Unexpectedly, it will only replace modules that are of the "nightly" or "beta" types:

    def geckoviewModules = [
        'geckoview-nightly',
        'geckoview-nightly-armeabi-v7a',
        'geckoview-nightly-arm64-v8a',
        'geckoview-nightly-x86',
        'geckoview-nightly-x86_64',
        'geckoview-beta',
        'geckoview-beta-armeabi-v7a',
        'geckoview-beta-arm64-v8a',
        'geckoview-beta-x86',
        'geckoview-beta-x86_64',
    ]
    ...
                    if (group == 'org.mozilla.geckoview'
                          && (geckoviewModules.contains(module)

The script will not substitute a "release" module.

The simplest workaround for this problem is to use def branch = "nightly", but we should look for a better solution.

[HollowMan6]

FYI, here's our previous discussion.

[HollowMan6]

#882 (comment)