Re: [bug #38433] Example for "eval" in documentation contains error with "define"

[Paul Smith]

On Wed, 2013-02-27 at 13:56 -0800, Daniel Wagenaar wrote:
> I appreciate your correction, but I still feel that the documentation
> on the website would be more helpful if it at least mentioned that
> older versions of make fail quietly when there is a "=" at the end of
> the line.

GNU make has been around for 25+ years.  I don't think it's reasonable
to include information in the manual describing every change, which
version of GNU make it appeared in, and what the consequences might be
if you are using older versions.

We do publish an extensive, and easy-to-read, NEWS file with every
release.  If you go to the Git repository and check the latest version
of that file you'll be able to verify which version of GNU make various
features were added in.

http://git.savannah.gnu.org/cgit/make.git/tree/NEWS

>  The reason is that make v. 3.81 is still in very wide use. For
> instance, it is part of Ubuntu 12.04-LTS as well as Mint 14.

That's a decision taken by the various GNU/Linux distributions.  The GNU
project and the FSF don't control this or have any input into it, and we
can't base our release or documentation efforts on what downstream
distributors do, or don't do, or how long it takes them to do it.

Philip is correct: your GNU/Linux distribution provides to you the
documentation for GNU make for the version of GNU make that it ships,
that you can view on your own system.  The best way to ensure you're
reading the appropriate version of documentation is to read that version
rather than the web version.


Cheers!