Re: [CRAZY PROPOSAL] Automake should support only GNU make

[Ralf Wildenhues]

* Bob Friesenhahn wrote on Thu, Jan 13, 2011 at 07:50:08PM CET:
> Regardless, 'make's use of timestamps based on simple "newer than"
> analsys is not very robust in our real world.

That may be true, but this issue is completely orthogonal to whether
Automake caters to non-GNU make implementations or not.

You can implement hash-based dependencies inside GNU make if you like.
Or another make.  Maybe someone has even done so already.  It has little
to do with Automake.


make is a bit flawed for real large projects because it always walks
the whole dependency graph, unlike beta build systems who use a notify
daemon and a database to only walk subgraphs known to be outdated.
I maintain that even that sort of functionality can be mostly hidden
below a Posix make-like interface.  Not relevant for the Automake layer
either, though.

Cheers,
Ralf