On 2008-04-11 16:28, John Calcote wrote:
Stefan,
I asked this very question a few years ago on this list.
Interestingly, my examples came not from the Linux kernel build
process, but from Windows builds, which use a similar output format. I
love this format because warnings and errors are obvious, and yet you
get enough output per file to tell you that something's going on. The
real benefit of this output format is that WARNINGS are obvious.
Often, in standard GNU/Unix/Linux build processes, warnings just zip
right by without much notice.
Part of that is that I expect a significant number of open source
developers use emacs or similar environments that clearly highlight
errors/warnings. So the full compilation commands don't normally get in
the way, and are always there to look at for detailed info, without
having to rebuild with a special switch (or regenerate the makefile
using a special switch).
Now -- that said, I really see nothing wrong with my original request,
in the form of an Automake switch. It would be nice to be able to tell
Automake to build Makefiles that generate this sort of output.
Unfortunately, you and I aren't going to get much agreement, I think.
This would mean that if I wanted to get the full commands back for
debugging, I'd have to rerun automake with a new option, potentially
triggering lots of rebuilds (if there are rules with Makefile as a
dependency).
In addition, I would expect such an option to be quite invasive (most
likely requiring changes to all .am fragments). So it would be hard to
maintain, with only a small set of actual users.
Perhaps, if you were to write a patch to Autoconf, providing a macro
or switch that generates such Makefiles... This also the GNU way. :)
Of course, build the feature without breaking anything else, and it will
exist for as long as someone is willing to maintain it :D
