Re: make: avoid breaking backwards compatability

[Antoine LECA <antoine.leca.1%gmail.com@localhost>]

On 2014-09-04 21:34Z, Alan Barrett wrote:
> The suffix rules are really two things:
> 
> 1. A list of precedence rules to be used when searching for files to
> satisfy a dependency (.SUFFIXES);
> 
> 2. A set of command rules to build files with a particular suffix from
> files with another suffix (.c.o, .S.o, etc.).
> 
> I think it's useful to be able to write explicit rules that to override
> the search part of suffix processing, while not overriding the
> commands.

Hep! This is really a third "thing" which make the "suffix rules" stuff!

I agree it can be convenient, that many people are used to it, etc.
However, POSIX specifications went without it, and only sticks to the
former two rules (with the order within .SUFFIXES being used to resolve
any ambiguity); and it is not clear to me that having the possibility to
override the order within .SUFFIXES using explicit dependency would
conform to POSIX (although TBH I am not convinced whether going for such
strict Posix conformity should be sought at any rate either.)


Antoine