GNU bug report logs - #13349
Could we just assume support for make recursive variable expansion unconditionally?

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Message #40 received at 13349 <at> debbugs.gnu.org (full text, mbox):

From: Nick Bowler <nbowler <at> elliptictech.com>
To: Stefano Lattarini <stefano.lattarini <at> gmail.com>
Cc: 13349 <at> debbugs.gnu.org, "bug-autoconf <at> gnu.org" <bug-autoconf <at> gnu.org>,
	Eric Blake <eblake <at> redhat.com>,
	"automake-ng <at> gnu.org" <automake-ng <at> gnu.org>,
	Bob Friesenhahn <bfriesen <at> simple.dallas.tx.us>
Subject: Re: Re-execute with the "correct" make implementation
Date: Thu, 3 Jan 2013 17:53:02 -0500

On 2013-01-03 23:05 +0100, Stefano Lattarini wrote:
> On 01/03/2013 10:34 PM, Eric Blake wrote:
[...]
> > Hmm, that goes back to one of the questions we asked about Automake-NG -
> > is it possible to write a generic makefile that merely forwards all
> > requests to gmake, and where all of the real magic of Automake-NG is in
> > GNUMakefile, so that even if the user types 'make all' they still end up
> > running 'gmake all' under the hood?
> >
> For usual targets, that is easy.  I don't even think that must be done
> at Automake-NG level; one can simply use 'GNUmakefile.am' as Automake-NG
> input file (instead of the usual 'Makefile.am'), add 'GNUmakefile' to
> an AC_CONFIG_FILES invocation, and then hand-write a simple Makefile
> acting as a thin wrapper:
> 
>   TARGETS = all check clean distclean dist distcheck install uninstall
>   .PHONY: $(TARGETS)
>   $(TARGETS): ; @gmake $(AM_MAKEFLAGS) $@

Unfortunately, this kind of wrapper doesn't work particularly well.  If
the user runs something similar to:

  make -j2 all install

then the wrapper makefile will happily fork off two independent make
instances in parallel: one running "gmake all" and one running "gmake
install".  The result will probably be catastrophic.

Cheers,
-- 
Nick Bowler, Elliptic Technologies (http://www.elliptictech.com/)

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