gbranden pushed a commit to branch master
in repository groff.
commit 0177f73f77c6ad64133929748cbd27fb223c90b8
Author: G. Branden Robinson <[email protected]>
AuthorDate: Sat Oct 3 21:46:20 2026 -0500
HACKING: Recast discussion of Make programs.
...per feedback from Ingo Schwarze. Speak more of POSIX Make and less
of "BSD Make", which per Ingo is ill-defined since the various *BSDs'
Make programs have diverged from each other.
Where I feel I must use the term "BSD Make" for brevity, give it a nonce
definition.
---
HACKING | 23 ++++++++++++-----------
1 file changed, 12 insertions(+), 11 deletions(-)
diff --git a/HACKING b/HACKING
index 12b97bbc5..bacc1669b 100644
--- a/HACKING
+++ b/HACKING
@@ -61,14 +61,14 @@ intersection of multiple constraints.
1. We use GNU Automake.
2. We don't run Make recursively. (Quod vide Peter Miller.)
3. We try to support both in-tree and out-of-tree ("VPATH") builds.
-4. We try to support both GNU Make and BSD Make. (This is an unusual
- and unpopular choice, and makes partisans of both tools angry.)
+4. We try to use only POSIX Make features so that our build procedure
+ is reasonably portable.
If you're having problems with Makefile rules, double check that you
haven't fallen into one of several traps.
-A. You can't use pattern rules ("%.foo: %.bar"). BSD Make doesn't
- support them.
+A. You can't use pattern rules ("%.foo: %.bar"). POSIX does not
+ specify them.
B. You can use the special variable `$<` _only_ in suffix rules. POSIX
Issue 8 (2024) doesn't specify it as having meaning anywhere else.
@@ -89,16 +89,17 @@ D. Prerequisites in the source tree must be written
relative to the
$(AM_V_at)$(MKDIR_P) $(top_builddir)/man
$(AM_V_GEN)$(SOELIMBIN) $(man_srcdir)/groff.7.man.in > $@
- Bear in mind that, roughly speaking, BSD Make populates the nodes in
- its dependency graph with _strings_, and GNU Make populates the
- nodes with _references to files_. For example, GNU Make knows that
- '././foo' and './foo' are the same. BSD Make does not.
+ Bear in mind that, roughly speaking, Make programs descended from
+ 4.4BSD ("BSD Make") populate the nodes in its dependency graph with
+ _strings_, and GNU Make populates the nodes with _references to
+ files_. For example, GNU Make knows that '././foo' and './foo' are
+ the same. BSD Make does not.
E. Notice how we used `soelim` as the name of the target's
_prerequisite_, but the macro `SOELIMBIN` in the _recipe_. That's
- because the prerequisite is interpreted by Make. Interpretatons can
- differ--note point D above--whereas the recipe is interpreted (after
- Make macro and special variable expansion) by the shell.
+ because the prerequisite is interpreted by Make. Interpretations
+ can differ--note point D above--whereas the recipe is interpreted
+ (after Make macro and special variable expansion) by the shell.
F. Machine-language programs that the groff build creates and then uses
to generate other build targets via shell commands should be
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