Follow-up Comment #1, bug #64472 (project make): https://www.gnu.org/software/make/manual/html_node/Utilities-in-Makefiles.html says that $(INSTALL) should be used instead of directly invoking install(1) but says nothing about $(CP). Indeed, it contrasts cp with install, saying that cp is OK to invoke directly:
> The configure script and the Makefile rules for building and installation should not use any utilities directly except these: > > ... cp ... rm ... > > The Makefile rules for building and installation can also use compilers and related programs, but should do so via make variables so that the user can substitute alternatives. Here are some of the programs we mean: > > ... $(INSTALL) Looking at somewhat redacted excerpts from the output of: martind@stormy:~/tmp/make-64472$ cat Makefile martind@stormy:~/tmp/make-64472$ make -n -p 2>&1 | grep '^[A-Z]* = ' | sort ... AR = ar ARFLAGS = -rv AS = as ... CC = cc CO = co COFLAGS = ... CPP = $(CC) -E CTANGLE = ctangle CWEAVE = cweave CXX = g++ ... FC = f77 ... GET = get ... HOME = /home/martind ... LANG = en_US.UTF-8 LD = ld LEX = lex LINT = lint LOGINPATH = /usr/local/bin:/usr/bin:/bin:/usr/local/games:/usr/games LOGNAME = martind MAIL = /var/mail/martind MAKE = $(MAKE_COMMAND) MAKEFLAGS = np MAKEINFO = makeinfo ... MANPATH = ... ... MFLAGS = -np ... OBJC = cc OLDPWD = /home/martind/tmp PAGER = less PATH = ... PC = pc PWD = /home/martind/tmp/make-64472 RM = rm -f ... SHELL = /bin/sh SHLVL = 0 ... TANGLE = tangle TERM = xterm TEX = tex TZ = America/Los_Angeles USER = martind WEAVE = weave ... YACC = yacc martind@stormy:~/tmp/make-64472$ ... I see that rm, which was on the list of directly invokable utilities with cp, nonetheless has an RM namesake, which contains the very much conventional, but non-obvious and misleading, -f. AR is there alright but, had the OP chosen INSTALL as their example, there'd be more of a case to answer. A cross-reference to https://www.gnu.org/software/make/manual/html_node/Implicit-Variables.html might help to explain what can be relied upon without Autotools or such. _______________________________________________________ Reply to this item at: <https://savannah.gnu.org/bugs/?64472> _______________________________________________ Message sent via Savannah https://savannah.gnu.org/
