Re: Testing automate builds with -q

[Stefano Lattarini]

Hello Rob.

On Saturday 06 August 2011, Rob Napier wrote:
> I've seen the following issue on two automake-based libraries (libevent and
> libidn), leading me to believe it's an issue with automake rather than the
> individual libraries.
>
> The following always fails:
> 
>    make && make -q
> 
> "make -q" should return 0 if the previous make completed successfully, but
> it doesn't. It return 2 indicating an error. I haven't been able to figure
> out what the actual error is, though:
> 
> monoceros:bld rnapier$ make
> make  all-recursive
> Making all in .
> Making all in include
> make[2]: Nothing to be done for `all'.
> Making all in sample
> make[2]: Nothing to be done for `all'.
> Making all in test
> make  all-am
> make[3]: Nothing to be done for `all-am'.
> monoceros:bld rnapier$ make -q
> make  all-recursive
> Making all in .
> make[1]: *** [all-recursive] Error 1
> make: *** [all] Error 2
> monoceros:bld rnapier$ echo $?
> 2
> monoceros:bld rnapier$

I cannot reproduce your problem with libevent (2.0.12 stable).
"make && make -q" works fine for it.

In the case of libidn, I can reproduce the problem, but it's not automake
to be at fault therew.  The problem lies in `po/Makefile' (which is not
automake-generated, but rather gettext-generated); on my system I get
(using GNU make 3.81):

  $ cd libidn  
  $ make bootstrap && make
  ....
  $ make -q
  make  all-recursive
  make[1]: Entering directory `/tmp/libidn'
  Making all in gl
  make[2]: Entering directory `/tmp/libidn/gl'
  make  all-recursive
  make[3]: Entering directory `/tmp/libidn/gl'
  make[3]: Leaving directory `/tmp/libidn/gl'
  make[2]: Leaving directory `/tmp/libidn/gl'
  Making all in lib/gl
  make[2]: Entering directory `/tmp/libidn/lib/gl'
  make  all-recursive
  make[3]: Entering directory `/tmp/libidn/lib/gl'
  make[3]: Leaving directory `/tmp/libidn/lib/gl'
  make[2]: Leaving directory `/tmp/libidn/lib/gl'
  Making all in lib
  make[2]: Entering directory `/tmp/libidn/lib'
  make  all-am
  make[2]: Leaving directory `/tmp/libidn/lib'
  Making all in po
  make[1]: *** [all-recursive] Error 1
  make[1]: Leaving directory `/tmp/libidn'
  make: *** [all] Error 2
  $ cd po
  $ make -q --debug=a
  GNU Make 3.81
  ... [SNIP]
  Reading makefiles...
  Reading makefile `Makefile'...
  Updating makefiles....
  ... [SNIP]
   No need to remake target `Makefile'.
  Updating goal targets....
  Considering target file `all'.
   File `all' does not exist.
   Looking for an implicit rule for `all'.
   No implicit rule found for `all'.
    Considering target file `check-macro-version'.
     File `check-macro-version' does not exist.
     Finished prerequisites of target file `check-macro-version'.
    Must remake target `check-macro-version'.
    Target file `check-macro-version' needs remade under -q.
   Finished prerequisites of target file `all'.
  Giving up on target file `all'.

So you might want to report this issue to either gettext or libidn
(depending on which is responsible to the "broken" makefile behaviour).

> As part of my build, I compile various libraries like libevent. If I always
> call "make install" in the build, it will force my entire project to rebuild
> (because this touches all the files). So I've been trying to use the
> following make rule:
> 
> all: $(BUILDDIR)/Makefile
> $(MAKE) -q -s -C $(BUILDDIR) || $(MAKE) -C $(BUILDDIR) install
> 
> Unfortunately, the -q part always returns 2 for automake-based builds.
> 
> Is there another way to achieve the underlying goal (automatically build
> third-party libraries, including correctly rebuilding them if there were
> local changes, but with correct dependency checking)?
>
I'm not sure about this, and I'm short(ish) of time, so you might want to
re-post the question on the GNU make mailing list, or on the libidn list.

> This is make 3.81 on Mac, but I'm seeing the same behavior on Linux.
> 
> I haven't been able to find an error in the "make -q -d" output.
> 
> Thanks,
> -Rob

HTH,
  Stefano