GNU bug report logs - #77897
"make clean" should do a "rm -rf .deps"

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Package: automake;

Reported by: Sam Varshavchik <mrsam <at> courier-mta.com>

Date: Fri, 18 Apr 2025 11:58:05 UTC

Severity: normal

Done: Karl Berry <karl <at> freefriends.org>

Bug is archived. No further changes may be made.

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From: Peter Johansson <trojkan <at> gmail.com>
To: Sam Varshavchik <mrsam <at> courier-mta.com>, 77897 <at> debbugs.gnu.org
Subject: bug#77897: "make clean" should do a "rm -rf .deps"
Date: Sat, 19 Apr 2025 08:38:42 +1000

Hi Sam,

On 4/18/25 21:56, Sam Varshavchik wrote:
>
> Set up a minimal Makefile.am and configure.ac to build this. Building 
> this will create .deps/<filename> with a:
>
> main.o: main.h main.c
>
When I do this with GCC, the .deps/<filename> also contains a line

main.h:

and I have no problem removing main.h and the #include and just run 
'make'. If you don't have that line (main.h:), it's bug in your compiler 
and I suggest you report it.


> Now: 1) 'rm -f main.h"  2) Remove the #include
>
> Then try to build this:
>
> make clean
> make
>
> Will fail because that dependency exists and make does not know how to 
> build main.h. I have to rm -rf .deps myself.
>
As a rule of thumb 'make clean' does not remove things that were created 
during configure (or upstream), but obviously depends on how people 
write the Makefile.am.

Cheers,

Peter
This bug report was last modified 28 days ago.

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