Re: bin/40115: make(1) behaviour is inconsistent across parallel and ordinary builds

[Aleksej Saushev <asau%inbox.ru@localhost>]

christos%zoulas.com@localhost (Christos Zoulas) writes:

>  This is not a bug. When -j is present, make tries to execute multiple
>  shell commands in a single shell instance for efficiency. This is not
>  very well documented in the man page, but -B gives a hint about it.
>  If you want to execute each line in its own shell process, use -B.
>  Most shell snippets that don't cd or chdir, benefit from the new way
>  of execution.

I'd rather say, it isn't documented at all. The respective parts read:

-B
   Try to be backwards compatible by executing a single shell per
   command and by executing the commands to make the sources of a
   dependency line in sequence.

-j max_jobs
   Specify the maximum number of jobs that make may have running at
   any one time.  Turns compatibility mode off, unless the B flag is
   also specified.

That "try to be backwards compatible by executing a single shell per
command" gives only a delicate hint, which is far from obvious. In my
opinion "-j" part should mention it explicitly: "All commands associated
with [particular? - fix style, please!] target are executed in single
shell invocation."

Why is it backwards compatible mode, which is on by default?
Why don't make make run commands in single shell invocation
and request explicit backward compatibility? Does it break
too much code?


-- 
HE CE3OH...