Re: maintainer-makefile vs vc-list-files/useless-if-before-free

[Jim Meyering]

Simon Josefsson wrote:
> In a project that use maintainer-makefile, I get:
>
> address@hidden:~/src/libidn master$ make syntax-check
> avoid_if_before_free
> /bin/sh: line 2: /build-aux/vc-list-files: No such file or directory
> /bin/sh: line 2: /build-aux/useless-if-before-free: No such file or directory
>
> The patch below makes the error messages better.  Ok to push?
>
> I prefer that maintainer-makefile do not depend on vc-list-files and
> useless-if-before-free modules: not every use of maint.mk requires
> syntax-check to work, and not every use of syntax-check needs
> useless-if-before-free tests.
...

Hi Simon,

That will help only a little, since a parallel build
(the norm, these days) will run $(local-check) rules at the same time.
So it seems too much like an ineffectual band-aid to be worthwhile.

Actually, vc-list-files is now central enough to the functioning of
maint.mk that I think it *should* be a dependent.
Why do you think it should not?

> +syntax-check: check-vc-list-files $(local-check)
>  #    @grep -nE '#  *include <(limits|std(def|arg|bool))\.h>'         \
>  #        $$(find -type f -name '*.[chly]') &&                        \
>  #      { echo '$(ME): found conditional include' 1>&2;               \
> @@ -111,6 +118,9 @@ define _prohibit_regexp
>  endef
>
>  sc_avoid_if_before_free:
> +     test -x $(gnulib_dir)/build-aux/useless-if-before-free || \
> +     { echo '$(ME): need gnulib module useless-if-before-free' 1>&2; \
> +       exit 1; } || :

Please just add a line like this in that package's cfg.mk

  local-checks-to-skip += sc_avoid_if_before_free

That's better because it won't mask the real problem
when someone wants the test and forgets to depend on
the useless-if-before-free module.