Re: [Groff] deletion of *~ files for `make mostlyclean'

[Mikko Työläjärvi]

On Fri, 14 May 2004, MARSHALL Keith wrote:

> > So far, the files *~ generated by editors are not deleted with the
> cleaning make rules.  Not sure, whether this is > really needed.  The
> following patch will do it:
> >
> > --- Makefile.comm.orig  2004-03-10 07:11:56.000000000 +0100
> > +++ Makefile.comm       2004-05-14 15:24:12.000000000 +0200
> > @@ -69,6 +69,7 @@
> >               exit 1)
> >
> >  mostlyclean:
> > +       -rm -f $(find -type f -name '*~')
>
> Are you sure?  Surely make will try to expand the $(find ...)
> as a makefile variable substitution, and most likely substitute
> nothing, (or have I missed some obscure feature of GNU make?).
>
> The portable way to do this is surely
>
>         -find -type f -name '*~' -exec rm -f {} \;

A portable version also requires one or more path names before the
predicates, e.g. "find . -type ...".  Omitting the path is a GNU-ism.

  $.02,
  /Mikko