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Re: make bug or feature


From: Paul D. Smith
Subject: Re: make bug or feature
Date: Thu, 24 Apr 2003 23:35:50 -0400

%% Debjani Saha <address@hidden> writes:

  ds> The following is a bug which was reported and i came across this
  ds> in the GNU make bug list. I am having a the same problem in
  ds> solaris 2.8 systems and i am not able to figure out why. Could you
  ds> explain why make behaves this way ?

Not sure which part of the message is the "this way" you are talking
about, so I can't say.

  ds> [/tmp]% cat Makefile1
  ds> all: $(FOO)
  ds>         @echo abcde
  ds> [/tmp]% make-3.80rc1/make -f Makefile1 
  ds> abcde

  ds>     (description)
  ds>       The above makefile is somewhat erroneous, but `make' does
  ds>       not print a warning message by default.

It is not in any way erroneous.  It could well be exactly what you
wanted.  The POSIX standard for make requires that unset variables
expand into empty strings and there is no version of make anywhere which
will warn about this by default.

  ds> [/tmp]% cat Makefile2
  ds> MAKEFLAGS := --warn-undefined-variables
  ds> all: $(FOO)
  ds>         @echo abcde
  ds> [/tmp]% make-3.80rc1/make -f Makefile2
  ds> abcde

  ds>     (description)
  ds>       `make' does not print a warning message when I specify
  ds>       --warn-undefined-variables option via the MAKEFLAGS
  ds>       variable in the makefile.  Hmmm....

Make parses the contents of MAKEFLAGS twice: once before any makefiles
are read, and once after all the makefiles are read.  It does not
re-parse MAKEFLAGS every time the contents of MAKEFLAGS are changed
while the makefiles are being read.

So, by the time make realizes that this option is specified it's already
read in all the makefiles and expanded the variable $(FOO) in the
prerequisites list.

If you were to write this:

  MAKEFLAGS := --warn-undefined-variables
  all:
        @echo $(FOO)

Then make would warn about _that_ use of $(FOO), because it is not
expanded until make runs the "all" rule.

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




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