Re: [patches] [PATCH] make texis in $(objpfx) not in srcdir

["Peter Seebach" <peter.seebach@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

On Tue, 01 Sep 2009 19:32:13 -0500, Peter Seebach  
<peter.seebach@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

> This is a pretty trivial patch.

... so of course, it's wrong.

> +-include $(objpfx)texis
> +$(objpfx)texis: texis.awk $(chapters) $(add-chapters) $(appendices)
> lesser.texi fdl.texi
> $(AWK) -f $^ > $@.T
> mv -f $@.T $@

This runs into what appears to be a version difference between different  
generations of GNU make.

In some, the initial build of this target fails, and make therefore aborts  
because a production rule failed.  It fails because $(objpfx) hasn't been  
created yet.

In others, the initial build of this target fails, so make doesn't include  
this file.  It then creates $(objpfx), and then the next subdir build  
creates the file.

As it happens, that's fine -- it doesn't matter whether the file existed  
the first time we came in.  But what's not fine is that, as a result, some  
systems (looks like older ones) abort the first time they try to enter  
this subdirectory, because $(objpfx) then refers to a directory which  
hasn't been made yet.

So, it needs a $(make-target-directory) at the top of the production rule.

With that fixed, the problem is ACTUALLY fixed rather than coincidentally  
fixed if you have gnu make 3.81 or later and a forgiving environment.

-s
--
Listen, get this. Nobody, with a good compiler, needs to be justified.