>>DL> On Tue, Jun 24, 2003 at 11:19:45AM -0400, Steve Bellovin wrote:
>>DL> > Following the recent discussion about rebuilding the system, I
>>DL> > added the following lines to /etc/mk.conf:
>>DL> >
>>DL> > #ifndef BSD_PKG_MK
>>DL> > MAKEOBJDIR=/usr/obj
>>DL> > DESTDIR=/usr/netbsd
>>DL> > #endif

and it didn't work.  MAKEOBJ* are processed _before_ any makefiles
(including sys.mk, mk.conf etc) are read.  Thus it needs to come 
from the environment.  That how it has always worked.  Its also
why a wrapper like build.sh can make it work.  

A while ago, Todd added support for a .OBJDIR target so you could put:

.OBJDIR: ${MAKEOBJDIR}

in mk.conf and make(1) will reset its notion of .OBJDIR etc.

I've only played with it since my builds at work etc use a wrapper
to ensure a properly conditioned environment anyway, so the current
behavior has never seemed a problem.

So, .OBJDIR does work, but I can't say if there are any corner cases
that might bite.

--sjg