Re: Dependency tracking

[Akim Demaille]

Hi!

Any reaction about the following message?

Cheers!

        Akim

> Le 27 nov. 2018 à 05:56, Akim Demaille <address@hidden> a écrit :
> 
> Hi all!
> 
> Bison's backends are implemented in (GNU) M4.  Bison is shipped
> with default M4 files (called skeletons), which m4_include several
> bits.  Users may also write their own skeletons.
> 
> I regularly have the dependencies wrong in Bison's Makefile, and
> some tests are not re-run when they should.  Fine tuning the
> dependencies is tedious and error-prone, so in general I use a
> superset of the dependencies, and some tests are run more than
> needed.  Not a big deal, but since M4 knows what files are actually
> used (bison itself does not know what M4 files are used, it knows
> only about the top-level M4 file, but then m4 does what it wants),
> it would make sense for it to tell us.
> 
> I made a quick search on this, and found that such a feature was
> already designed (I found this:
> https://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/m4-patches/2010-11/msg00001.html),
> and actually contributed
> (https://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/m4-patches/2011-02/msg00003.html).
> 
> Is there a reason for this work not to be part of M4?  I cannot
> see any further reference after 2011-02 (but maybe I failed to
> look for the right words, namazu does not seem very reliable).
> I can see older messages, including interactions with Eric, but
> nothing more recent.
> 
> Cheers!