[H-GEN] gnu make command-line target ordering problems?

[Byron Ellacott]

[ Humbug *General* list - semi-serious discussions about Humbug and
Unix-related topics. ]

On Mon, 18 Oct 1999, Martin Pool wrote:

> What do you expect make to do?  It's whole _purpose_ is to make
> assumptions about what commands it should execute and when.  It only
> makes assumptions you specify in the makefile and implicit rules.

Yes, it should make assumptions about what commands to execute; no it
should never ever make assumptions about what those commands do.  Assuming
"rm foo.o" removes foo.o is what strikes me as wrong.  Hence, it deciding
that an "rm" command doesn't need to be executed because the file will be
rebuilt later is inherently wrong.

> > As a side note, I agree with Ben on the counter intuitive nature of having
> > those multiple targets executed in parallel.
> What do you think the "parallel" option should do?

when I issue the command "make a b c d" it seems more intuitive to think
of that as making a, in parallel if so specificed, then making b, ..

Of course, this is because ``intuitive'' really implies ``how I was
already thinking about it''.

--
bje



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