Re: Why `lisp' and `shortlisp'

[Glenn Morris <rgm@gnu.org>]

Stefan Monnier wrote:

> Can someone explain to me why we have both `lisp' and `shortlisp' in
> src/Makefile.in?  It appears to contain the same list of files, so
> I can't understand how it would make sense to sometimes refer to them
> via ../lisp and sometimes via ${lispsource}.

I wondered about this too. Perhaps:

$lisp specifies the full path for those who build in a different directory.
$shortlisp is needed for the comment above the rule for DOC:

/* We run make-docfile twice because the command line may get too long
   on some systems.  */

Perhaps $shortlisp is (more likely, was) needed to avoid overflowing
the command-line limit on "some" systems. Generating it from $lisp via
eg sed would have the same problem.