Re: Built make-3.80rc1 on Cygwin - brief

[Paul D. Smith]

%% "Soren Andersen" <address@hidden> writes:

  sa> The make I built fails some of the test suite (in fact one test
  sa> scripts *dies*) because the test "rig" for make is buggy and
  sa> needed / needs a good going-over to update certain things

The test suite was originally maintained separately from GNU make, by a
few very dedicated volunteers; this was many years ago (back in 1996 and
before).

After they didn't have time to do anything with it, I integrated it into
the GNU make build tree, but I never had time to do much more than make
minor tweaks.  I have updated a few of the files, there and there, to be
at least _slightly_ better.

But, the test suite is in dire need of work.  Not only things like
adding -w, etc. but also more fundamental improvements: it needs to be
able to be run "remotely" (as in remote builds) so the workspace is
different from the source tree, it would be nice to have it understand
and count all the "sub-tests" which appear in each test file, etc. etc.

I encourage anyone who has the time and energy to put into improving the
test suite to do so.  Please let me know so we can discuss it.


On a final note, all support of non-UNIX systems is performed by
volunteers; I don't have a single Windows system that I can even test
builds on to be sure they work.  That includes support for the test
suite.

Furthermore, note that the Cygwin codebase comes with its own version of
GNU make, which is not the same one that is distributed by the FSF; it
has some modifications made by Cygwin.  I believe all parties would like
to see this difference resolved and whatever appropriate changes are
made to the Cygwin version, merged into the mainline FSF version.  But,
that requires some work no one has undertaken yet.

I encourage you to submit the bug fixes you needed to apply so others
can benefit from those changes.

-- 
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 Paul D. Smith <address@hidden>          Find some GNU make tips at:
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 "Please remain calm...I may be mad, but I am a professional." --Mad Scientist