Re: make it possible to avoid symlinks in coreutils' bootstrap

[Paul Eggert]

> Date: Wed, 11 Oct 2006 08:43:14 +0200
> From: Ralf Wildenhues <address@hidden>
> 
> > Yes, but exactly the same problem exists with symbolic links.
> 
> I don't see how.  The first `make' already sees the new files from the
> gnulib tree, through the symlinks.

Symlinks pass through the last-modified time of the gnulib files.
cp -p also passes through the last-modified time of the gnulib files.
So if the first "make" already sees the new files from the gnulib
tree through the symlinks, it will also see the new files from
the gnulib files through copies made via cp -p.

> > And there are many similar problems, e.g., if 'bootstrap' modifies
> > a makefile this means you really have to rebuild everything.
> 
> The more likely offenders of
> this (e.g., configmake.h) already depend on the makefile.

I dunno, the times I've run into this problem the problems
were more elsewhere, e.g., a gnulib module file got changed.

I suppose we could change "bootstrap" to do a "make clean"
at the end but this might get in the way of rapid rebuilds too. 
I'm not sure it's worth the hassle.