make's .SILENT _not_ obsolescent

[Dan Jacobson]

The following message is a courtesy copy of an article
that has been posted to comp.unix.shell as well.

Dear GNU Make team, please cease and desist from saying .SILENT is a
good for nothing old hag.  First, the Info page:

`.SILENT'
     If you specify prerequisites for `.SILENT', then `make' will not
     print the commands to remake those particular files before
     executing them.  The commands for `.SILENT' are not meaningful.

     If mentioned as a target with no prerequisites, `.SILENT' says not
     to print any commands before executing them.  This usage of
     `.SILENT' is supported only for historical compatibility.  We
     recommend you use the more selective ways to silence specific
     commands.  *Note Command Echoing: Echoing.  If you want to silence
     all commands for a particular run of `make', use the `-s' or
     `--silent' option (*note Options Summary::).

However lets say you have a target with many lines of commands after
it, like getp in http://jidanni.org/makefile .  Let's say we want to
make getp silent, but don't want to have to remember to use "make -s"
each time. Nor do we want to have to prefix each and every line of
getp with a "@".  We find that a simple ".SILENT: getp" fills our
wishes better than the "more flexible ways".  Therefore stop deriding
it in the documentation, please.
-- 
http://jidanni.org/ Taiwan(04)25854780