1997-08-27 20:30:54 +00:00
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-*-Indented-Text-*-
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GNU Make TODO List
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------------------
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This list comes both from the authors and from users of GNU make.
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They are listed in no particular order!
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2013-04-30 13:37:03 +00:00
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Also, I don't guarantee that all of them will be ultimately deemed "good
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1997-08-27 20:30:54 +00:00
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ideas" and implemented. These are just the ones that, at first blush,
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seem to have some merit (and that I can remember).
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However, if you see something here you really, really want, speak up.
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All other things being equal, I will tend to implement things that seem
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to maximize user satisfaction.
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1999-09-14 00:17:58 +00:00
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If you want to implement some of them yourself, barring the ones I've
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marked below, have at it! Please contact me first to let me know you're
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working on it, and give me some info about the design--and, critically,
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information about any user-visible syntax change, etc.
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1997-08-27 20:30:54 +00:00
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1999-09-14 00:17:58 +00:00
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The Top Item
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------------
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1997-08-27 20:30:54 +00:00
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1999-09-14 00:17:58 +00:00
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If you know perl (or want to learn DejaGNU or similar), the number one
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priority on my list of things I don't have time to do right now is
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fixing up the GNU make test suite. Most importantly it needs to be made
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"parallelizable", so more than one regression can run at the same time
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(essentially, make the "work" directory local). Also, the CWD during
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2000-07-07 17:34:56 +00:00
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the test should be in the work directory or, better, a test-specific
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temporary directory so each test gets a new directory; right now
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sometimes tests leak files into the main directory which causes
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subsequent tests to fail (some tests may need to be tweaked). Beyond
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that, any cleanup done to make writing, reading, or handling tests
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simpler would be great! Please feel free to make whatever changes you
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like to the current tests, given some high-level goals, and that you'll
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port the current tests to whatever you do :).
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1997-08-27 20:30:54 +00:00
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1999-09-14 00:17:58 +00:00
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The Rest of the List
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--------------------
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2006-02-11 19:02:21 +00:00
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1) Option to check more than timestamps to determine if targets have
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1999-09-14 00:17:58 +00:00
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changed. This is also a very big one. It's _close_ to my plate :),
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2000-07-07 17:34:56 +00:00
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and I have very definite ideas about how I would like it done.
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Please pick something else unless you must have this feature. If
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you try it, please work _extremely_ closely with me on it.
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1999-09-14 00:17:58 +00:00
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2006-02-11 19:02:21 +00:00
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1a) Possibly a special case of this is the .KEEP_STATE feature of Sun's
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1999-09-14 00:17:58 +00:00
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make. Some great folks at W U. in Canada did an implementation of
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this for a class project. Their approach is reasonable and
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workable, but doesn't really fit into my ideas for #2. Maybe
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that's OK. I have paperwork for their work so if you want to do
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this one talk to me to get what they've already done.
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1999-09-17 03:15:37 +00:00
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[K R Praveen <praveen@cair.res.in>]
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2006-02-11 19:02:21 +00:00
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2) Currently you can use "%.foo %.bar : %.baz" to mean that one
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1999-09-14 00:17:58 +00:00
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invocation of the rule builds both targets. GNU make needs a way to
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do that for explicit rules, too. I heard a rumor that some versions
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of make all you to say "a.foo + a.bar : a.baz" to do this (i.e., a
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"+" means one invocation builds both). Don't know if this is the
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best syntax or not... what if you say "a.foo + a.bar a.bam : a.baz";
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what does that mean?
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2006-02-11 19:02:21 +00:00
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3) Multi-token pattern rule matching (allow %1/%2.c : %1/obj/%2.o,
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2010-07-13 01:20:10 +00:00
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etc., or something like that). Maybe using regex?
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1997-08-27 20:30:54 +00:00
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2006-02-11 19:02:21 +00:00
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4) Provide a .TARGETS variable, containing the names of the targets
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defined in the makefile.
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1997-08-27 20:30:54 +00:00
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2006-02-11 19:02:21 +00:00
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Actually, I now think a $(targets ...) function, at least, might be
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1999-09-14 00:17:58 +00:00
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better than a MAKETARGETS variable. The argument would be types of
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targets to list: "phony" is the most useful one. I suppose
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"default" might also be useful. Maybe some others; check the
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2006-02-11 19:02:21 +00:00
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bitfields to see what might be handy.
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1997-08-27 20:30:54 +00:00
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2006-02-11 19:02:21 +00:00
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5) Some sort of operating-system independent way of handling paths
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1997-08-27 20:30:54 +00:00
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would be outstanding, so makefiles can be written for UNIX, VMS,
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DOS, MS-Windows, Amiga, etc. with a minimum of specialization.
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1999-09-14 00:17:58 +00:00
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Or, perhaps related/instead of, some sort of meta-quoting syntax so
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make can deal with filenames containing spaces, colons, etc. I
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dunno, maybe something like $[...]? This may well not be worth
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doing until #1 is done.
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2006-02-11 19:02:21 +00:00
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6) Right now the .PRECIOUS, .INTERMEDIATE, and .SECONDARY
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2000-07-07 17:34:56 +00:00
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pseudo-targets have different capabilities. For example, .PRECIOUS
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1999-09-14 00:17:58 +00:00
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can take a "%", the others can't. Etc. These should all work the
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same, insofar as that makes sense.
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2006-02-11 19:02:21 +00:00
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7) Improved debugging/logging/etc. capabilities. Part of this is done:
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2000-07-07 17:34:56 +00:00
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I introduced a number of debugging enhancements. Tim Magill is (I
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think) looking into options to control output more selectively.
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One thing I want to do in debugging is add a flag to allow debugging
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of variables as they're expanded (!). This would be incredibly
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verbose, but could be invaluable when nothing else seems to work and
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you just can't figure it out. The way variables are expanded now
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means this isn't 100% trivial, but it probably won't be hard.
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2006-02-11 19:02:21 +00:00
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-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
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2022-02-10 19:48:26 +00:00
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Copyright (C) 1997-2022 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
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2006-02-11 19:02:21 +00:00
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This file is part of GNU Make.
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GNU Make is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the
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terms of the GNU General Public License as published by the Free Software
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2007-07-04 19:35:15 +00:00
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Foundation; either version 3 of the License, or (at your option) any later
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version.
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2006-02-11 19:02:21 +00:00
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GNU Make is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but WITHOUT ANY
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WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR
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A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the GNU General Public License for more details.
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You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License along with
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2007-07-04 19:35:15 +00:00
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this program. If not, see <http://www.gnu.org/licenses/>.
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