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From: grady@fxgrp.fx.com (Steven Grady)
Newsgroups: gnu.utils.bug
Subject: Re: make 3.55 infinite loop
Message-ID: <1989Sep1.022849.26598@fxgrp.fx.com>
Date: 1 Sep 89 02:28:49 GMT
References: <1989Aug31.014333.18904@fxgrp.fx.com> <45050@bbn.COM>
Reply-To: grady@fxgrp.fx.com (Steven Grady)
Organization: FXDevelopment, Mountain View, CA
Lines: 41

In article <45050@bbn.COM> fkittred@BBN.COM (Fletcher Kittredge) writes:
>In article <1989Aug31.014333.18904@fxgrp.fx.com> grady@fxgrp.fx.com (Steven Grady) writes:
>>It seems like the new feature that a production that has commands
>>but no dependencies should always be executed is a mistake.
>
>If you are talking about the feature that if I have the two line makefile
>
>foo:
>	@echo hello
>
>that hello is echoed, then you are wrong that this is a new feature.

No, I'm describing something else.  If I have the following makefile:

    bar: foo
	    @echo bar
    foo:
	    @echo foo

Also, assume "foo" already exists.

Sun's make and gnumake 3.54 do the same thing:
	% make
	bar

Gnumake 3.55 does this:
	% make
	foo
	bar

The important point is that before, a file without dependencies was 
considered up-to-date if it existed.  Now, it's never considered up-to-date
if there are any commands associated with the production.  The current
form is inconsistent with other versions of make.

	Steven
	...!ucbvax!grady
	grady@postgres.berkeley.edu

If God had wanted us to be concerned for the plight of the toads, he would
have made them cute and furry.