[bug #16505] Line-continuation backslashes are not stripped

[Paul D. Smith]

Follow-up Comment #8, bug #16505 (project make):

I think the INTENT was to allow embedded newlines.  However, the
implementation only works for tools which will ignore the backslash as well. 
Some UNIX tools do this; many don't.

You _have_ to have the newline in the makefile, because make does not and
absolutely cannot parse the contents of your command line to determine
whether the newline is inside single-quotes or not.  Make needs a 100%
objective criteria as to whether to continue a line, and a backslash/newline
is it.

What I suppose you REALLY want is that, for backslash/newline pairs in a
command script, the BACKSLASH is removed but the NEWLINE is preserved when
make invokes the shell.  This allows for all possible options: you can
preserve newlines (which is important in some situations!) and you can choose
to not have a backslash before the newline (the default) or to have one (by
adding "\\" before the backslash/newline).

But, that's not what POSIX defines, and it's not how any other version of
make I'm aware of works.  So... :-/

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