cvs commit: src/usr.bin/make make.1

[Warner Losh]

From: Ruslan Ermilov <ru at freebsd.org>
Subject: Re: cvs commit: src/usr.bin/make make.1
Date: Wed, 12 Oct 2005 18:27:10 +0300

> On Wed, Oct 12, 2005 at 09:13:30AM -0600, M. Warner Losh wrote:
> > In message: <200510121009.j9CA9aE3026075 at repoman.freebsd.org>
> >             Yar Tikhiy <yar at FreeBSD.org> writes:
> > : yar         2005-10-12 10:09:36 UTC
> > : 
> > :   FreeBSD src repository
> > : 
> > :   Modified files:
> > :     usr.bin/make         make.1 
> > :   Log:
> > :   __MAKE_CONF doesn't really belong here because it is
> > :   a FreeBSD extension of sys.mk.  A xref to make.conf(5)
> > :   will be enough here.
> > :   
> > :   Requested by:   ru
> > 
> > I disagree.  It is already hard enough to find info about __MAKE_CONF,
> > and since it is part of the base system, this seems like an artificial
> > distinction.
> > 
> __MAKE_CONF doesn't fall under "make sets or knows about the following
> internal variables or environment variables".  Rather, it's a FreeBSD
> specific feature, it doesn't have any direct connection to the make
> utility (as well as CPUTYPE, CFLAGS, etc.).  As such, it shouldn't
> be documented in the make(1) manpage.  OTOH, build(7) could benefit
> from talking more about make.conf(5), while having __MAKE_CONF only
> documented in make.conf(5) is fine.  We really don't need any more
> duplication.

I disagree. It is directly connected to the make(1) utility, just like
all the FreeBSD extentions we've added over the years for things like
'expand this variable, and make it upper case'.  Every single
invocation of make(1) will cause __MAKE_CONF to be evalutated, and
/etc/make.conf included if __MAKE_CONF isn't defined.  It is very much
unlike CPUTYPE, CFLAGS, etc because of this.  As such, it should be in
the make(1) man page.  Every user of make potentially has to know
about it.  It is a variable that we've made fundamental to our make
system, so it should be at least mentioned in make(1).  There's no
harm in putting it make(1), and people absolutely will look there
first for this information.  A simple xref to make.conf isn't
sufficient.

Warner