More verbose diagnostics

[Matthew Sanderson]

Makers,

I think that make's diagnostics when a sub-process exits with an error
status are insufficient. People are not understanding that the problem
does not lie with make itself. I'm aware that some people will never
understand, but I think make could do more to explain the problem to the
user than it currently does. It does not 'point the finger' at its
subprocesses enough IMNSHO.

I suggest that just before make prints the diagnostic:
make[x]: *** [target] Error NNN

...it should additionally print another diagnostic:
make[x]: *** Subprocess 'argv[0]' exited with error status NNN

I claim this will reduce the number of posts to this list from confused
Windows users with broken compilers, and thus save everyone time.

--m@

Matthew Sanderson
Senior Programmer (UNIX)
TCG Information Systems Pty Ltd
Sydney, Australia
address@hidden
http://www.formtrap.com/
+61 (02) 8303 2407