Re: [bug #41246] Allow to switch shell batch mode at runtime instead of build time

[Paul Smith]

On Fri, 2014-01-31 at 16:55 +0200, Eli Zaretskii wrote:
> > An option as command line argument, or as a special target as the
> > original patch did?
> 
> The former, as Paul objected to the latter.

I didn't object, per se.  I just prefer my tools to DTRT in all cases
without me having to use any magical incantations to make it happen :-).

My question, or _challenge_ if you like, is whether we can find a way to
know, without any hints from the user, whether a given command line will
work properly for /bin/sh -c in Windows, or if it needs to use a batch
file.

It seems, from my lofty vantige point of knowing virtually nothing about
it, that this is a solveable problem.  If we can try to write down (in
text) the rules for when we would or would not be able to use /bin/sh
-c, I would think it would quickly become clear if we can solve it or
not.

As for whether we use a command line option or makefile target, I think
probably the makefile target is probably more appropriate.  In general I
like to use command line options to control user preferences which do
not have direct impacts on the build, so if you ran the same build with
different flags it would still work, just with different behaviors.

But for things which will cause the makefile to not work properly if not
specified, those things should be embedded into the makefile itself: I
don't want it to be the case that you always have to remember to give a
particular command line option or your build will break!