On Tue, 8 Aug 2006, Ralf Wildenhues wrote:
>
> The opinions on this matter are certainly not unanimous.
> On the one hand, there is the issue you mention that re-make thinks the
> target is up-to-date, although it isn't (it exists but is result of a
> failed link, and does not have execute permission). On the other hand,
> a link may take a long time, and the output file from a failed link may
> give useful clues as to the problem a programmer may encounter.
Regardless of possible value for debugging, leaving a broken target
behind which influences the next build attempt is clearly wrong
behavior. A goal of autotools should be to obtain consistent behavior
in an inconsistent world. Leaving stray files behind represents
inconsistent behavior which should be rectified.