This is harmless to Windows programs but when using MakeMaker under Cygwin, the trailing backslash causes errors a bit like this:
% make subdirs
cd C && make -f Makefile all LIB="C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio .NET 2003\SDK\v1.1\Lib\" LIBPERL_A=" libperl.a" LINKTYPE="dynamic" PREFIX="" OPTIMIZE="" PASTHRU_DEFINE="" PASTHRU_INC=""
/bin/sh: -c: line 0: unexpected EOF while looking for matching `"'
/bin/sh: -c: line 1: syntax error: unexpected end of file
make: *** [subdirs] Error 2
The backslash at the end of the double-quoted string confuses sh. This could be fixed by putting a substitution in the Makefile:
There's already a method in MakeMaker for quoting, quote_literal(). Trouble is it was introduced late in the game and there's lots of places which do not use it. This is one of them.
The code which generates the above is, I think, ExtUtils::MM_Unix->pasthru() and it does not use quote_literal(). It should. Patches welcome.
