Recursive makefiles

Recursive makefiles

[Ludovic Courtès]

Andreas Enge <andreas@enge.fr> skribis:

> commit 575ed8d5b3184493c8fe233b4d5128c495b7c652
> Author: Andreas Enge <andreas@enge.fr>
> Date:   Wed Aug 28 21:44:14 2013 +0200
>
>     doc: Create own Makefile.am in subdirectory.
>     
>     * doc/Makefile.am: New file.
>     * Makefile.am: Reference subdirectory doc.

Please don’t do that: the build system purposefully avoids recursive
makefiles, to improve parallelism etc. (see
<http://miller.emu.id.au/pmiller/books/rmch/>.)

However, the snippet about the ‘doc’ directory could be moved in, say,
doc.am, and have doc.am included from Makefile.am.

WDYT?

Thanks,
Ludo’.

Re: Recursive makefiles

[Andreas Enge]

On Wed, Aug 28, 2013 at 11:09:40PM +0200, Ludovic Courtès wrote:
> Please don’t do that: the build system purposefully avoids recursive
> makefiles, to improve parallelism etc. (see
> <http://miller.emu.id.au/pmiller/books/rmch/>.)

I did it for two reasons:
- It allows to type "make ps" and "make pdf" in the main directory,
  instead of "cd doc; make pdf; cd ..".
- It avoids clutter in the main directory (not checked this time, but I
  think there were a few files guix.* then).

Andreas

Re: Recursive makefiles

[Ludovic Courtès]

[-- Attachment #1: Type: text/plain, Size: 854 bytes --]

Andreas Enge <andreas@enge.fr> skribis:

> On Wed, Aug 28, 2013 at 11:09:40PM +0200, Ludovic Courtès wrote:
>> Please don’t do that: the build system purposefully avoids recursive
>> makefiles, to improve parallelism etc. (see
>> <http://miller.emu.id.au/pmiller/books/rmch/>.)
>
> I did it for two reasons:
> - It allows to type "make ps" and "make pdf" in the main directory,
>   instead of "cd doc; make pdf; cd ..".

Hmm, there was no Makefile in doc/, so how could “cd doc; make pdf” work?

> - It avoids clutter in the main directory (not checked this time, but I
>   think there were a few files guix.* then).

I just tried “make pdf” from 3d1b29a, and, surprise: it doesn’t do
anything.  :-)

Turns out that the “doc/guix.pdf:” line in Makefile.am annihilated the
built-in rule.  This is “fixed” with:


[-- Warning: decoded text below may be mangled, UTF-8 assumed --]
[-- Attachment #2: Type: text/x-patch, Size: 513 bytes --]

diff --git a/Makefile.am b/Makefile.am
index 6eb4c0f..710f708 100644
--- a/Makefile.am
+++ b/Makefile.am
@@ -210,9 +210,9 @@ DOT_OPTIONS =						\
 	dot -Teps $(DOT_OPTIONS) < "$<" > "$@.tmp"
 	mv "$@.tmp" "$@"
 
-doc/guix.pdf: doc/images/bootstrap-graph.png
-doc/guix.info: doc/images/bootstrap-graph.png
-doc/guix.ps: doc/images/bootstrap-graph.eps
+# doc/guix.pdf: doc/images/bootstrap-graph.png
+# doc/guix.info: doc/images/bootstrap-graph.png
+# doc/guix.ps: doc/images/bootstrap-graph.eps
 
 if BUILD_DAEMON

[-- Attachment #3: Type: text/plain, Size: 383 bytes --]


With that, “make pdf” at the top level creates doc/guix.pdf, and leaves
no intermediate files at all at the top level.

Is it an acceptable solution for you (provided the bug above is fixed
nicely)?  If so, I’ll prepare a patch.

I feel quite strongly about avoid recursive Makefiles, so I’d prefer to
fix any bugs in the current build system.

Thanks,
Ludo’.

Re: Recursive makefiles

[Andreas Enge]

On Thu, Aug 29, 2013 at 12:21:47AM +0200, Ludovic Courtès wrote:
> Hmm, there was no Makefile in doc/, so how could “cd doc; make pdf” work?

Sorry, indeed, it did not work of course. "make doc/guix.pdf".

> With that, “make pdf” at the top level creates doc/guix.pdf, and leaves
> no intermediate files at all at the top level.
> 
> Is it an acceptable solution for you (provided the bug above is fixed
> nicely)?  If so, I’ll prepare a patch.

That sounds very good, thanks!

Andreas

Re: Recursive makefiles

[Ludovic Courtès]

Andreas Enge <andreas@enge.fr> skribis:

> On Thu, Aug 29, 2013 at 12:21:47AM +0200, Ludovic Courtès wrote:
>> Hmm, there was no Makefile in doc/, so how could “cd doc; make pdf” work?
>
> Sorry, indeed, it did not work of course. "make doc/guix.pdf".
>
>> With that, “make pdf” at the top level creates doc/guix.pdf, and leaves
>> no intermediate files at all at the top level.
>> 
>> Is it an acceptable solution for you (provided the bug above is fixed
>> nicely)?  If so, I’ll prepare a patch.
>
> That sounds very good, thanks!

I just did that in commit a9424c0 (already pushed).  I think it does
the right thing, but if it doesn’t, let’s discuss it.  :-)

Ludo’.

Re: Recursive makefiles

[Andreas Enge]

On Thu, Aug 29, 2013 at 10:04:10PM +0200, Ludovic Courtès wrote:
> I just did that in commit a9424c0 (already pushed).  I think it does
> the right thing, but if it doesn’t, let’s discuss it.  :-)

It works well for me, and the patch fixing the size of the graph is also
a nice addition. Thanks!

Andreas