On February 20, 2023 2:11 PM, Paul Smith wrote: >In the next major release (not the upcoming 4.4.1 release but the one after >that) I >plan to implement notifying users of invalid variable references; for example >variable names containing whitespace. > >So, a makefile like this for example: > > all: ; echo $(cat foo) > >will notify the user about the illegal variable reference "cat foo", instead >if silently >expanding to the empty string. > >My intent is that this is always enabled, not requiring an extra option like >--warn- >undefined-variables, since it's never legal to have a variable name containing >whitespace. > >The question is, should this notification be a warning? Or should it be a >fatal error? >Originally I thought it should be fatal but now I'm leaning towards making it a >warning, at least for a release or two, because I worry about makefiles that >might >have these references that are silently and innocuously expanding to empty >strings, >suddenly stop working completely.
Having worked on (insert large number) of build engines, there are likely users who depend on bad or empty strings behaving in a particular way (prior to this feature). I like your idea of turning this detection on by default from a personal standpoint; however, I think you need to be able to return to a compatible mode for some users. Having an option like --undefined-variables=warn or --undefined-variables=error (the default) or --undefined-variables=ignore would be prudent. Just my $0.02 --Randall -- Brief whoami: NonStop&UNIX developer since approximately UNIX(421664400) NonStop(211288444200000000) -- In real life, I talk too much.
