Re: gnulib-tool and line length: gl_LIBOBJS

[Ralf Wildenhues]

* Bruno Haible wrote on Sun, Jan 28, 2007 at 02:57:39PM CET:
> Ralf Wildenhues wrote:
> > The combined length of object names in gl_LIBOBJS can get pretty close
> > to the line limit of some 'make' implementations,
> 
> How small is this limit?

Around 20kB:
<http://www.gnu.org/software/autoconf/manual/html_node/Long-Lines-in-Makefiles.html>

> > or, FWIW, the portable text file format limit.
> 
> What is this limit?

2048 characters.  I don't know whether this limit is actually reached
yet on some system, but gathering from the number of files gnulib has
it shouldn't be far off.  I did guess only, though.

> I can edit text files with 10000 characters per line in every editor.

AIX vi gives me:
| "file" A line cannot be longer than 2048 characters.

Several other proprietary implementations of tools (for example grep)
cannot cope with long lines in makefiles.  And for example Automake
dependency code uses sed on Makefiles (some versions also grep).

> Adding newlines and backslashes to an AC_SUBSTed value limits its use: It
> can only be used in particular places of Makefiles.

Which other places do you need gl_LIBOBJ at?  Sorry, I fail to see the
problem here.

> If the line limit is a problem, I'd prefer to first move the unconditional
> AC_LIBOBJs to the module description. They represent more than half of
> gnulib's AC_LIBOBJ invocations.

Sorry, I don't understand this comment.

Cheers,
Ralf