Re: Makefile dependency generation for elisp files?

Robert Widhopf-Fenk writes: > GCC allows for the generation of dependencies for Makefiles > by -MD. > > I wonder if there is something similar for Emacs, but I did > not find anything. No. elisp is designed to make this difficult and unreliable. It is possible to construct a graph of requires, but a require that is not listed in the package Makefile REQUIRES variable will also be reported as a fatal error when attempting to build. However, Lisp code that calls a function that is not defined at load time or compile time is legal by design, so there is no way (except to keep a database of all functions ever defined anywhere) to determine whether a function that is called is a dependency, and if so, it is not possible to determine where it was defined. Consider: (condition-case nil (who-knows-if-i-am-defined--try-me-and-find-out!) (error (all-hail-rms))) Various people have tried to do a "good-enough" job over the years, but with little success; it seems to be more trouble than it is worth.