Re: src/Makefile unhelpful

[Alan Mackenzie <acm@muc.de>]

Hello, Gregory.

On Sat, Sep 17, 2022 at 10:46:24 +0000, Gregory Heytings wrote:

> Complete patch attached, comments welcome.

Just a small point in English usage:

> I added a (minimal) sanity check, too.  I remember at least one case when 
> make "failed to fail", it returned 0 even though the build did in fact not 
> succeed.

> +
> +# ADVICE-ON-FAILURE-BEGIN
> +#   You might consider to:
> +#   - run "make bootstrap", which might fix the problem
> +#   - run "git clean -fdx" and run "make" again, which might fix
> +#     the problem if it was not fixed by "make bootstrap"
> +#     !BEWARE! "git clean -fdx" restores the local repository in its
> +#     !BEWARE! pristine state, it deletes all local changes and all
> +#     !BEWARE! untracked files
> +#   - run "make V=1", which displays the full commandes invoked by
> +#     make, to further investigate the problem
> +# ADVICE-ON-FAILURE-END
> +

The verb "consider" takes a gerund (or noun), not an infinitive.  So the
above really ought to be:

    You might consider:
    - running ....

, with the other "run"s being changed to "running", too.  Alternatively,
one could use instead the verb "try", which can take an infinitive (or a
gerund or noun ;-).

-- 
Alan Mackenzie (Nuremberg, Germany).