Subject: Re: non-.WAIT bsd.subdir.mk (was Re: patches to fix make -j)
To: David Laight <david@l8s.co.uk>
From: Todd Vierling <tv@duh.org>
List: tech-toolchain
Date: 12/19/2003 07:16:08
On Fri, 19 Dec 2003, David Laight wrote:

: > .WAIT not in SUBDIR is usually a hack and should never have been used in the
: > first place.  Makefiles have dependencies for a reason.
:
: It is needed when you want files created as a side effect of other
: dependencies.

That is a lacking in our make(1) that other makes (say, Sun's) address with
the following syntax:

foo + bar: baz
	command

indicating that foo and bar are created by running command exactly once.
ISTR that christos wanted to implement this at one point, and I don't know
if that was ever done.

This can also be accomplished with "touch"ed timestamp files.

-- 
-- Todd Vierling <tv@duh.org> <tv@pobox.com>