Re: Recursive $(call)

[Paul D. Smith]

%% Philip Guenther <address@hidden> writes:

  pg> It would greatly increase the expressiveness of GNU make's macro
  pg> expansion if it was possible to define recursive macro functions.
  pg> For example, here's a function that performs calculates the
  pg> transitive closure of a set of dependencies:

  pg> # If $(firstword) is car, this is cdr:
  pg> rest = $(wordlist 1,$(words ${1}),${1})

  pg> tclose = $(if ${1},$(firstword ${1}) \
  pg>              $(call tclose,$(sort ${DEP_$(firstword ${1})} \
  pg>                              $(call rest,${1}))))

Heh.  I see your point, but I have to say that your example proves
exactly the amount of danger involved with allowing this: your
definition of "rest" has a bug which causes this series to loop
infinitely! :)

In wordlist, etc., words are numbered from one, not zero, so you really
want:

  rest = $(wordlist 2,$(words ${1}),${1})

otherwise your loop will never end.

  pg> You could then define variables ala:

  pg> DEP_foo = bar baz quux
  pg> DEP_baz = quux blarp

  pg> and expect $(sort $(call tclose,foo)) to expand to "bar baz blarp quux"

ITYM "bar baz blarp foo quux", right?
                    ^^^

  pg> Unfortunately, the restriction on recursive macros not referencing
  pg> themselves includes references via $(call).  I would argue that
  pg> GNU make should not try to protect someone from themself if the
  pg> write a recursive $(call).  Yes, you can trivially write infinite
  pg> loops if it's allowed, but the increase in expressiveness is
  pg> substantial.

OK, I buy this argument.  As a test I removed the restriction on
recursive variable definitions and (with the above fix) your example
did work as you intended.  Neat.

However, I think the restriction is valid for normal variable
expansions, and most if not all builtin functions.  Are there any other
builtins you think would benefit from loosening this restriction?

I'll think about how this can be done correctly.

-- 
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