From owner-freebsd-hackers Fri May 31 1:39: 5 2002 Delivered-To: freebsd-hackers@freebsd.org Received: from pintail.mail.pas.earthlink.net (pintail.mail.pas.earthlink.net [207.217.120.122]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 97FA137B405 for ; Fri, 31 May 2002 01:39:00 -0700 (PDT) Received: from pool0040.cvx22-bradley.dialup.earthlink.net ([209.179.198.40] helo=mindspring.com) by pintail.mail.pas.earthlink.net with esmtp (Exim 3.33 #2) id 17Dhvy-0002MZ-00; Fri, 31 May 2002 01:38:54 -0700 Message-ID: <3CF73679.A5AB7886@mindspring.com> Date: Fri, 31 May 2002 01:38:17 -0700 From: Terry Lambert X-Mailer: Mozilla 4.7 [en]C-CCK-MCD {Sony} (Win98; U) X-Accept-Language: en MIME-Version: 1.0 To: jos@catnook.com Cc: freebsd-hackers@freebsd.org Subject: Re: Improving GNU make compatibility in BSD make (+ patch) References: <20020531024250.GA90997@lizzy.catnook.com> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Sender: owner-freebsd-hackers@FreeBSD.ORG Precedence: bulk List-ID: List-Archive: (Web Archive) List-Help: (List Instructions) List-Subscribe: List-Unsubscribe: X-Loop: FreeBSD.ORG Jos Backus wrote: > So BSD make interpreting either `$^' or `$+' as its own `$>' would improve > compatibility with GNU make Makefiles. I am just not sure which of the two GNU > make variables maps better to our `$>'. This patch implements the former: The biggest problem with GNU make that I've seen is re-expansion of variable variables. The suggested fix doesn't address that, so it won't fix the most common "compatability problem". If we are going to evolve make into gmake (not a good idea, IMO), then probably the place to start is "any port that requires gmake" to get it working under "make". I'm not sure, but I believe the other BSD's, and "OpenPorts" have modified "make" syntax somewhat. It's probably a good idea to keep compatability with options in the "OpenPorts" camp, more than any other, if it ever evolves to fulfill its potential properly. I really hate that many autoconf/automake scripts generate code that can ony be run by gmake, and sometimes also requires that /bin/sh actually be "bash" instead of "sh". It also occurs to me (from experience with "perl"), that in any language where it's posible to do something in more than one way, it is then impossible to differentiate "the right way" from "the wrong way". 8-(. -- Terry To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-hackers" in the body of the message