non-GNU make + --srcdir support
>>>> "Hrvoje" == Hrvoje Niksic
<hniksic(a)srce.hr> writes:
Hrvoje> SL Baur <steve(a)xemacs.org> writes:
> Hrvoje Niksic <hniksic(a)srce.hr> writes in
xemacs-beta(a)xemacs.org:
>
> > SL Baur <steve(a)xemacs.org> writes:
> >> Is there a volunteer to create such a Makefile? You can assume that
> >> the template will be passed the names of the manual(s), that there
> >> is no need to worry about dependencies of source files (they're
> >> really handled in the canonical-for-XEmacs sources), and you can
> >> assume GNU Make is being used.
>
> > Is GNU make really needed? Not all of us are running under Linux.
>
> GNU make is very much needed for package building the same as it is
> required to build XEmacs with the --srcdir flag.
Hrvoje> Since when has GNU make been required to build with --srcdir? I am
Hrvoje> getting very worried by this.
Historically, we've tried to support all makes. At one time, the
--srcdir support was broken with some makes, in particular Sun make,
and I hacked the makefiles to fix this problem. Since then, all makes
that support the (mostly undocumented) VPATH feature should work, with
the exception that if you have done a build sans --srcdir, then a
separate simultaneous build with --srcdir will lose in various
interesting ways.
VPATH is not part of the POSIX spec for make, and System V make, which
introduced the feature, did not feel it was worth documenting. The
engineer at Sun who added VPATH support (still without documentation!)
to Sun make told me he had regretted adding this non-standard feature
(to my utter dismay).
Martin