GNU bug report logs - #12411
24.2.50; No `make help' target?

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From: Stefan Kangas <stefan <at> marxist.se>
To: Eli Zaretskii <eliz <at> gnu.org>
Cc: Bastien Guerry <bzg <at> altern.org>, 12411 <at> debbugs.gnu.org, Stefan Monnier <monnier <at> iro.umontreal.ca>
Subject: bug#12411: 24.2.50; No `make help' target?
Date: Wed, 28 Aug 2019 01:56:14 +0200

[Message part 1 (text/plain, inline)]

Eli Zaretskii <eliz <at> gnu.org> writes:

> > I'm not a Makefile expert, so I couldn't find a way to skip the
> > configure step and immediately echo.
>
> There's GNUmakefile which could be used for that purpose.

Thanks.  I think I was able to find a good way to do it using that file.

> > +     @echo "make clean            -- delete files from build"
> > +     @echo "make mostlyclean      -- delete most files from build"
> > +     @echo "make distclean        -- delete files from build and configure"
> > +     @echo "make maintainer-clean -- delete almost everything that can be regenerated"
>
> It would be good to have these 4 more descriptive.  The above
> basically just repeats the target names, which is not very helpful.

I've extended that.

> > +     @echo "make bootstrap        -- delete all files and force a new bootstrap"
>
> "Delete all files" sounds scary, and is also incorrect.

Fixed.

> > +     @echo "make uninstall        -- delete all installed files"
>
> I'd say "remove files installed by 'make install'"

Done.

> > +     @echo "make docs             -- generate Emacs documentation"
> > +     @echo "make html             -- generate html documentation"
> > +     @echo "make ps               -- generate ps documentation"
> > +     @echo "make pdf              -- generate pdf documentation"
>
> The description of "make docs" should tell which formats it produces,
> otherwise its relation to the 3 other docs-related targets is not
> clear.

Done.

> Thanks.

Thanks for reviewing.  Please find attached a revised patch,
incorporating your changes and also announcing this feature in NEWS
for bigger visibility.

Best regards,
Stefan Kangas

[0001-Add-new-make-help-target.patch (application/octet-stream, attachment)]

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