Re: make debugging output

["Steven M. Bellovin" <smb%cs.columbia.edu@localhost>]

On Sat, 18 Oct 2008 16:53:09 +0200
Alan Barrett <apb%cequrux.com@localhost> wrote:

> By default, make(1)'s debugging output goes to stdout.  Would it be OK
> to change the default to go to stderr?

I think that's reasonable, but with an important caveat: I think that
stdio should be set to be line-buffered in that case, to maintain
synchronization with debugging output.
> 
> My main concern is that debugging output interferes with processes
> that attempt to parse the output from make(1).  For example, any
> process that does something like
> 
>       result="$( make print-result )"
> 
> will get the wrong results if it's run in en environment that has
> MAKEFLAGS="-dA".  Of course the calling process can just do
> 
>       result="$( make -dFstderr print-result )"
> 
> instead, but I think that this should not be necessary.
> 
> --apb (Alan Barrett)
> 



                --Steve Bellovin, http://www.cs.columbia.edu/~smb