Re: make help?

[NightStrike]

On 2/3/08, Ralf Wildenhues <address@hidden> wrote:
> * NightStrike wrote on Sun, Feb 03, 2008 at 03:53:36PM CET:
> > Is there any possibility of an automake generated "help" target that
> > would list the possible targets (or a subset of them) for make?  This
> > could potentially be propagated upstream to the standard gnu targets,
> > too.
>
> Like this?
>
> .PHONY: help
> help:
>        @echo "Please see here for a list of standard targets and their"
>        @echo "semantics (unless the package author has overridden them):"
>        @echo 
> "<http://www.gnu.org/software/automake/manual/html_node/Standard-Targets.html>"
>        @echo 
> "<http://www.gnu.org/prep/standards/html_node/Standard-Targets.html>"
>
> I don't see how to cope nicely with overridden targets.  Note BTW that
> the user is not supposed to override them, but it happens nonetheless.
>
> FWIW, I'm not yet convinced this to be all that useful (but I don't have
> a strong opinion either way).

I meant more along the lines of, for instance in the gcc project,
there is 'make all-gcc", "make all-gmp", "make all-mpfr", etc.  I
admit that the idea wasn't well thought out; I just know that anytime
I try using a new project where I need to build specific parts instead
of just "make all install", I find myself drudging painfully through a
bunch of Makefiles to find what I need.  It'd be so much easier to see
something like:

$ make help
The following are valid targets:
all
install
lib64/lib<specific lib>.a
custom-target-that-makes-stuff-just-work

etc..