Re: bug in the documentation, or ...?

[Paul D. Smith]

%% nusret <address@hidden> writes:

  n> I quote from the make manual (3.80)

  n> foo : bar/lose
  n>         cd bar; gobble lose > ../foo
  n> ...
  n> '''''''''

  n> This doesn't work on Windows XP cmd.exe. Does make
  n> preprocess commands to replace ; with && which works?
  n> Or should the manual point to this?
  n> (I learned it the hard way :)

In general the examples in the GNU make manual assume that SHELL is a
POSIX-compatible shell, in a POSIX environment.  A disclaimer to that
effect is probably something that should be made in the manual, but I
don't really want to write two versions of all the examples, one for
POSIX and one for Windows... Windows users are expected to understand
the idiosyncracies of their own environment using CMD.EXE (just as
anyone would need to understand the ramifications of changing SHELL to
Perl or some other interpreter).


_However_!  That example has already been changed in the manual, because
it's safer to use "&&" anyway.  The new version of that example is:

  foo : bar/lose
          cd $(@D) && gobble $(@F) > ../$@

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