Re: Potential for problems: GNU make confusing variables with targets and vice versa in hash table?

[Garrett Cooper]

On Tue, Jul 15, 2008 at 4:31 PM, Philip Guenther <address@hidden> wrote:
> On Tue, Jul 15, 2008 at 4:15 PM, Garrett Cooper <address@hidden> wrote:
>> I misread the manual a while back and appeared to have accidentally
>> introduced a bug into a .mk file which I just fixed. However, my
>> results in just poking around with my testcase provided 2 examples of
>> very weird behavior when stimulating the mistake (Example #1) and its
>> analog (Example #2):
>>
>> Example #1 ($(.DEFAULT_GOAL) isn't a target!):
>>
>>    address@hidden ~ $ make -f test.mk
>>    echo DEFAULT GOAL foo
>>    DEFAULT GOAL foo
>>    echo bar
>>    bar
>
> ...where test.mk starts with:
> ----
> .DEFAULT_GOAL: foo
>
> foo: sanity_check
>        echo bar
> ----
>
> If the question is "why isn't the default goal '.DEFAULT_GOAL'?", then
> the answer can be found in the info pages, "9.2 Arguments to Specify
> the Goals", where we read:
> ---
>   By default, the goal is the first target in the makefile (not
> counting targets that start with a period).  <...>
> ---
>
> If that wasn't your question, you'll need to elaborate on what you
> find unexpected.
>
>
>> Example #2 (.PHONY isn't a variable!):
>>
>>    address@hidden ~ $ make -f test2.mk  all
>>    echo "I'm not real... just a figment of your imagination"
>>    I'm not real... just a figment of your imagination
>>    echo "Is it [phony_baloney] real...?"
>>    Is it [phony_baloney] real...?
>>    echo "Hi, my name is all!"
>>    Hi, my name is all!
>
> ...where test2.mk contain
>  .PHONY  := phony_baloney
>
> I'm not sure what the question here is.  The variable named '.PHONY'
> is not magical at all to GNU make; the behavior you show is what you
> should expect for any normal variable.  What's unexpected about the
> above behavior?
>
>
>> Now tell me... does this behavior constitute a bug or is it just
>> considered "undefined behavior"?
>
> GNU make is behaving as described by its manual.  The behavior is
> neither incorrect nor undefined.
>
>
> Philip Guenther
>

Philip,
     I just verified what you said by inserting a dummy rule to the
top of each makefile and it does as you claim.
Thanks!
-Garrett