Re: [PATCH] nt/gmake,defs, nt/nmake.defs

[Bill Meier <wmeier@newsguy.com>]

OK:

1. A Windows 'mingw32-make install' (to other than the build 
directories) ends up  installing files such as those in emacs/etc/ and 
such as the .el files without preserving the date/time of these (source) 
files. Although this may not cause any direct problems, IMHO it's a bug 
in the install.

I note from a a quick look at the *nix install scripts that the *nix 
install does preserve the file date/times (since tar .... is used to 
copy the files [at least for the .el files]).

(As an aside, I also note that the *nix install also removes any 
.cvsignore & etc files from the install destination directories as part 
of the install; I'll leave that to another time).

2. I'm happy to submit a proposed fix which will preserve the file 
date/times during an install (if cp implements -p).

I found after some further testing that my original fix did not work for 
all the files installed (specifically: the .el files) since the 
lisp/makefile.w32-in uses 'cp' (and not '$(CP)' for the install of the 
.el files & etc.


I'm inclined to do the fix as follows (comments welcome):

1. In lisp/makefile.w32-in:
For the install target: change 'cp -f' to '($CP)'

2. In configure.bat, gmake.defs and nmake.defs:
Add appropiate code so as to test for the availability of 'cp -p'  and 
to define CP (and CP_DIR) to include (or not) the '-p' option.


This approach changes all usage of CP and CP_DIR in the makefile.w32-in 
files to preserve file date/times; A review of the usage of $(CP) and 
some testing suggests this won't be a problem.

An alternative approach would be to change just the install usage of cp; 
  Eg: by defining a new macro (say) 'CPI=cp -p -f'   (if 'cp -p' 
implemented).

In this case the cp usage for install would need to be changed to use 
$(CPI) in some number of the various makefile.w32-in files.

Thoughts ?


Thanks

Bill Meier