GNU bug report logs - #9245
FreeBSD make in concurrent mode report spurious success in automake-generated tests harness

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Package: automake;

Reported by: Stefano Lattarini <stefano.lattarini <at> gmail.com>

Date: Fri, 5 Aug 2011 09:10:02 UTC

Severity: normal

Tags: patch

Done: Stefano Lattarini <stefano.lattarini <at> gmail.com>

Bug is archived. No further changes may be made.

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From: Stefano Lattarini <stefano.lattarini <at> gmail.com>
To: Eric Blake <eblake <at> redhat.com>
Cc: Autoconf <Autoconf <at> gnu.org>, 9245 <at> debbugs.gnu.org
Subject: bug#9245: FreeBSD make in concurrent mode report spurious success in automake-generated tests harness
Date: Tue, 16 Aug 2011 18:28:12 +0200

Hi Eric.

On Tuesday 16 August 2011, Eric Blake wrote:
> On 08/16/2011 10:04 AM, Stefano Lattarini wrote:
> > The "proper fix" is even easier BTW: just use "$$exit || exit 1" instead.
> >
> > The updated patch should now work (and I've tested it properly this time).
> > This new patch hasn't been derived by "cargo-cult guessing", but from the
> > explanation of the relevant FreeBSD make bug provided by Jilles Tjoelker:
> >   <http://www.freebsd.org/cgi/query-pr.cgi?pr=159730>
> >
> > Now that's something to be documented in the Autoconf manual I'd say ...
> 
> Indeed.  So it all boils down to BSD make rewriting rules (but only for 
> make -j) to be roughly:
> 
> sh -c 'set -v; your rules; set +v'
> 
> and losing your exit status (not to mention sharing shell status between 
> commands that are supposed to be in independent shells), when it really 
> should have been rewriting as something more complex:
> 
> sh -c '(your rule 1); (your rule 2); st=$?; set +v; exit $st'
> 
> And your workaround of an explicit exit rather than relying on $? at the 
> end of your 'set +e' invocation is indeed the proper way to force the 
> parallel make bug to be avoided, by exiting prior to any post-commands 
> injected by the BSD make rewriting going on that corrupt $?.
> 
I'll have a "draft patch" read soonish.  There is ample room for improvements,
but I'll post it here anyway since it can benefit from early feedback.

Regards,
  Stefano
This bug report was last modified 13 years and 335 days ago.

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