On Thu, 2008-03-20 at 09:24 -0700, Gert Jan van Loo wrote: > I assume this 'feature' will not be removed as it will break the > makefile of all simple souls who are not competent enough to add a > space in the right place.
Actually, it won't be removed because to do so would contravene the POSIX standard for "make", which requires: > When an escaped <newline> (one preceded by a backslash) is > found anywhere in the makefile except in a command line, it > shall be replaced, along with any leading white space on the > following line, with a single <space>. When an escaped > <newline> is found in a command line in a makefile, the > command line shall contain the backslash, the <newline>, and > the next line, except that the first character of the next > line shall not be included if it is a <tab>. To the best of my knowledge, GNU make implements this behavior exactly. > I DO suggest to add this to the manual somewhere and explain in more > details the processing which takes place when a backslash is at the > end of a line: It adds one space if it is missing and it reduces > multiple spaces and tabs to a single space. There's a whole section dedicated to backslash/newline handling in recipes, but you're right, there's nothing explicitly said about how whitespace is handled outside of recipes. > I also suggest you specify how to get rid of these nasty spaces in > case anybody does not want them. Erm... don't use backslash/newline in those situations, but just write the string as one long line? I'm not aware of any other robust way to avoid the problem. Cheers! -- ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Paul D. Smith <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> http://make.mad-scientist.us "Please remain calm--I may be mad, but I am a professional."--Mad Scientist _______________________________________________ Bug-make mailing list Bug-make@gnu.org http://lists.gnu.org/mailman/listinfo/bug-make
