Hi Eric. On 01/03/2013 09:40 PM, Eric Blake wrote: > [adding bug-autoconf, as owner of the source that becomes the generic > GNU INSTALL file] > > On 01/03/2013 01:33 PM, Bob Friesenhahn wrote: >> On Thu, 3 Jan 2013, Stefano Lattarini wrote: >>>> >>>> It is a problem that MAKE is not mentioned in the standard >>>> GNU INSTALL file, or in Automake's own INSTALL file. >>>> >>> The latter is not surprising, since Automake's INSTALL file is >>> merely a copy of the generic GNU one. >>> >>>> If this variable was never mentioned by any instructional text, >>>> users can't be expected to ever use it. >>>> >>> This makes sense? Care to attempt a patch? I'm not going to >>> do it myself, I must admit. >> >> If Automake-dependent packages are dependent on MAKE, then it seems that >> mention of MAKE should be added to the standard GNU INSTALL file (not >> just Automake's copy). >> >> Previous to use by Automake in configure scripts, MAKE was an >> environment variable used for internal communication from a parent make >> process to a subordinate make process and set by make itself. > > So what's the verdict - do we (want to) support the user overriding > MAKE, and therefore document that in INSTALL? > Indeed, we should warn the user that if he configures an Autotools-based package with MAKE set in the environment (or passed on the command line), that he must use that same $MAKE to build the package; if this doesn't happen, semi-random (albeit unlikely) failures can crop up.
> For that matter, should > autoconf (and/or automake) mark MAKE as a precious variable, so that it > gets listed in './configure --help', and so 'MAKE=gmake ./configure' has > the same results as './configure MAKE=gmake'? > Yeah, probably AM_INIT_AUTOMAKE should enhance the configure help message to report the "quirky" role of $MAKE (patches welcome). As for $MAKE becoming a precious variable, it cannot certainly hurt, but is not truly relevant either, since the user still has to invoke $MAKE himself, and configure cannot help him there. Regards, Stefano
