Re: submake messages not perfect

[Paul D. Smith]

%% Sam Ravnborg <address@hidden> writes:

> %% Dan Jacobson <address@hidden> writes:
> 
>   dj> The messages on submakes aren't perfect.
>   dj> make[1]: Entering directory `/tmp'
>   dj> make[1]: Leaving directory `/tmp'
>   dj> You mean "starting submake 1" and especially "ending submake[1]".

  sr> This message appear when you do:
  sr> make -C some/dir

It appears when you invoke a sub-make, period, regardless of whether you
use -C or not.

  sr> When using recursive make files you almost always uses 'make -C
  sr> ...'  so the original writer get the impression this is something
  sr> printed only for make invoked from within make.

I think you're chasing herrings when you talk about -C (where did that
come from?) but it is correct that this message is printed when invoking
make from within make (recursive make, or submake, or whatever).

I guess I still don't understand Dan's comment, though.

  dj> so maybe even mention PID's.

  >> I don't see what PIDs have to do with anything.

  sr> To be able to distingush between two different make instances?

But none of make's normal output says anything about PIDs.  It's not the
intent of the GNU make manual to give a tutorial on UNIX or
multiprocessing, after all.  I'm certainly not interested in explaining
what a PID is and why you should care, when it is not relevant to
understanding how to use GNU make.

  sr> It's anyway insane^Wunsafe to have two make's running in parallel
  sr> in same dir.

Well, it's not necessarily true that it's unsafe.  As long as they are
building disjoint sets of targets it will work fine.

But, I do think it's not very useful since it's much simpler to just let
make do the parallelism for you from a single invocation.

-- 
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 Paul D. Smith <address@hidden>          Find some GNU make tips at:
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 "Please remain calm...I may be mad, but I am a professional." --Mad Scientist