Re: src/Makefile unhelpful

[Richard Stallman]

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  > > I agree we do not want to output the expansion more than once.

  > Note that CFLAGS can (I don't speak for whether they do in Emacs)
  > vary per file, target, directory, ...

I'm asking for this in Emacs, and obly Emacs.

The other programs I've worked on did not need anything like this.
Their makefile commands were simple enough that you could figure
out the precise options easily enough.

So instead of proposing new features for make or automake,
which nobody here is likely to work on, let's look for
a simple way to implement this in the makefiles for Emacs itself.

  > As for CC, I think you could read configure output if you're particularly
  > interested in that.

I'd have to figure out which make variables get used, since the output
does not say.  Then find out the value of each of them.  It would be
a lot of work.

With the feature I proposed, it would be pretty easy.

  > I think if you do want this, the best place to recommend it would be
  > the automake mailing lists. Emacs will become harder to maintain
  > if it develops quirks like this,

Alas, the quirks are already implemented.  This command-explaining feature
would not require any of the complexity.

  > >> The way to see the arguments is to say
  > > 
  > >>  make V=1

How about adding a make command such as

      @echo Use V=1 to see the actual compilation commands

to run near the start of the make run.  That would inform people.

-- 
Dr Richard Stallman (https://stallman.org)
Chief GNUisance of the GNU Project (https://gnu.org)
Founder, Free Software Foundation (https://fsf.org)
Internet Hall-of-Famer (https://internethalloffame.org)