Re: intermediate files

[Philip Guenther]

On Thu, Oct 21, 2010 at 5:59 AM, Paul Smith <address@hidden> wrote:
> On Wed, 2010-10-20 at 23:19 -0800, ali hagigat wrote:
>> I wonder if Mr.Paul Smith can verify that and please mention when
>> exactly make creates an intermediate file by a simple example.
>
> Oleksandr's explanation and example look fine to me; I have nothing to
> add.  Please try rereading his two emails and if you don't understand
> them ask SPECIFIC questions about things you don't understand.

Ali's focus, for better or worse, has been on the docs.  In this case,
checking the page in the info pages that he was obviously looking
("10.4 Chains of Implicit Rules") at we find three places where the
docs say that make creates (or doesn't create) a target.  While make
does not itself directly create the targets, it _does_ build them
using the rules in the makefile.  This is described in a paragraph
earlier on the involved page, where it says:

    Once `make' has decided to use the intermediate file, it is entered in
    the data base as if it had been mentioned in the makefile, along with
    the implicit rule that says how to create it.

All the references to make creating files have to be read in the
context of that paragraph.  I.e., Make creates files using the rules
entered in its data base.

Personally, this seems like a case where the doc would be better if it
just said "build" instead of "create" when referring to make's
operation.


Philip Guenther