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

Previous Next

Full log

View this message in rfc822 format

From: Peter Johansson <trojkan <at> gmail.com>
To: Sam Varshavchik <mrsam <at> courier-mta.com>
Cc: 77897 <at> debbugs.gnu.org
Subject: bug#77897: "make clean" should do a "rm -rf .deps"
Date: Sat, 19 Apr 2025 15:24:18 +1000

On 4/19/25 13:16, Sam Varshavchik wrote:
>
> After digging through make's documentation, a clue emerged:
>
> #    If an included makefile cannot be found in any of these directories
> # it is not an immediately fatal error; processing of the makefile
> # containing the 'include' continues.  Once it has finished reading
> # makefiles, 'make' will try to remake any that are out of date or don't
> # exist.  *Note How Makefiles Are Remade: Remaking Makefiles. Only after
> # it has failed to find a rule to remake the makefile, or it found a rule
> # but the recipe failed, will 'make' diagnose the missing makefile as a
> # fatal error.
>
This is for GNU make, I suppose, but I doubt that behavior is portable 
and can be assumed by Automake.


> So, a nonexistent include is not an error if make can find a rule that 
> builds it. It then gets suppressed.
>
> Oh, and there's also a:
>
> -include FILENAMES…
>
> which never complains about missing makefiles... how about that...
That is definitely not portable.

Previous Next

GNU bug tracking system
Copyright (C) 1999 Darren O. Benham, 1997,2003 nCipher Corporation Ltd, 1994-97 Ian Jackson.