Re: distclean should walk subdirs in reverse order

[Harlan Stenn]

Sam Varshavchik writes:
> Harlan Stenn writes:
> > The problem I've had is that the info above does a great job of saying
> > "recursive Make can be a problem" but I haven't found anything to help
> > me make a useful non-recursive Make system.
> 
> Non-recursive make systems can be a problem too. Anything can be a problem,  
> if it's not used properly. For any given tool there is a right way, and a  
> wrong way to use it.
> 
> And once codebase crosses some threshold, having one, flat Makefile just  
> does not work. I count 81 Makefile.am's in gcc's svn tree. Even if someone  
> comes up with one flat Makefile to replace all of them, I'd be shocked if  
> the end result is unquestionably superior.

I'm not suggesting a single flat file for a non-recursive Makefile
situation.

I'm expecting there to be one Makefile in each directory.

I'd also almost expect that the Makfile in each (build) directory would
"call up" to the top-level Makefile with enough information to build the
desired target.

I'd also expect that the top-level Makefile would "source in" enough
information from a file in each subdir (possibly not the Makefile) to
figure out the entire dependency and build situation.

H