Date: Fri, 28 Aug 1998 23:24:59 -0700 (PDT) From: Matthew Dillon <dillon@backplane.com> To: Warner Losh <imp@village.org> Cc: committers@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Re: make.conf Message-ID: <199808290624.XAA22084@apollo.backplane.com>
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:In message <199808290547.WAA21954@apollo.backplane.com> Matthew Dillon writes:
:: In my comments below, when I say 'global' I mean that the option could
:: be meaningful to virtually any utility, port, etc...
:
:Does that mean all the programs that might be built on the system, or
:just all the programs that traditionally have lived in
:/usr/{src,ports}?
I think some variables are seriously global... not just for /usr/src and
/usr/ports, but potentially for everything. For example, the location of
certain binaries, or whether you want man pages to be compressed
or not, whether your system is tightly integrated with kerberos, whether
you want compiled programs to be optimized in a specific way for the
platform (aka -m486, etc...), whether you are USA_RESIDENT, etc...
Other variables aren't quite as global, but cover a large enough code
base that the convenience factor is just too big to ignore. For example,
some of the ports-specific globals: NOPORTSDOCS, FORCE_PKG_REGISTER.
Other variables cover a program class but don't really apply to all
programs. e.g. NNTP_ONLY, which can conceivably effect a class of
news-related clients. Still worth the convenience factor. Maybe.
Others can't be considered global by any stretch of the imagination:
TOP_TABLE_SIZE, SUP, etc...
I think the thing with make.conf is that, basically, it's just too
convenient a place to put make configuration variables. Usually you
don't have too many, and you really don't want to spread them around
half a dozen different files. Hence, make.conf. The key to making it
work is to make the variables verbose enough as to greatly diminish the
chance of a conflict occuring.
:Warner
:
-Matt
Matthew Dillon Engineering, HiWay Technologies, Inc. & BEST Internet
Communications
<dillon@backplane.com> (Please include original email in any response)
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