Re: Schedule for GNU make 3.81

[Eli Zaretskii]

> Date: Sat, 19 Feb 2005 17:42:42 -0500
> Cc: address@hidden
> From: "Paul D. Smith" <address@hidden>
> 
>   ez> 5. On variable.c, the function define_automatic_variables used to
>   ez>    always export SHELL (there was a line "v->export = v_export;" right
>   ez>    after SHELL was assigned the default value), but now it doesn't.
>   ez>    There's no ChangeLog entry corresponding to that change, so I
>   ez>    couldn't grasp the reasons for it.  In any case, the DOS port needs
>   ez>    SHELL to be exported, because otherwise the library function
>   ez>    `system' doesn't see the value of SHELL modified by the Makefile,
>   ez>    and doesn't DTRT for Makefile's whose commands require a Unixy
>   ez>    shell.
> 
> The info on the new handling of SHELL is here (from the ChangeLog):
> 
> 2004-11-28  Paul D. Smith  <address@hidden>

Perhaps you should mention the change to define_automatic_variables in
this entry.

> We can special-case this for DOS, if necessary.  It should probably be
> documented that way as well.

Yes.  If I had more time, I might be able to find a way to handle the
problem without breaking Posix compatibility, but I don't have that
kind of free time anymore.  Also, the DJGPP port of Make was used many
years with auto-exported SHELL, and I presume by now that behavior is
relied upon.

>   ez>     tests/scripts/variables/MAKEFILE_LIST
>   ez>     config/inttypes_h.m4
>   ez>     config/inttypes-pri.m4
> 
> Hm.  Ouch.
> 
> Well, we can rename the MAKEFILE_LIST test without too much hassle.

That'd be good.

> Unfortunately, the other two are automatically installed by gettext,
> and are standard files that are part of the gettext package.

Is there any way to rename them in a way that doesn't break the NLS
build?  Perhaps Bruno could help come up with some ideas?

> Does the DOS port support gettext?

Yes.  Although I didn't look there to see what that port does with
these 2 files.

> What happens when you unpack with those filenames?

The unpacking utility asks for new names for those files whose names
clash.  Which isn't a catastrophe, but I'd like to avoid that if
possible, since it could confuse users.

BTW, there's another problem I didn't mention: the variables/SHELL
test fails.  Given the comments inside the test script, I'm not
surprised ;-)  I might find some time to look closer, but could you
perhaps tell whether that test is at all supposed to work if SHELL is
always exported if set by a Makefile?  If it is not supposed to work,
it should probably be disabled for the DOS port.