Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10.1 6/24/83; site sdcsvax.UUCP Path: utzoo!linus!decvax!ittvax!dcdwest!sdcsvax!greg From: greg@sdcsvax.UUCP (Greg Noel) Newsgroups: net.unix-wizards,net.sources Subject: Re: Auto-configuring software -- potential problems Message-ID: <172@sdcsvax.UUCP> Date: Sat, 6-Oct-84 05:18:56 EDT Article-I.D.: sdcsvax.172 Posted: Sat Oct 6 05:18:56 1984 Date-Received: Sun, 7-Oct-84 21:10:53 EDT References: <421@ogcvax.UUCP> Organization: NCR Corporation, Torrey Pines Lines: 21 In article <421@ogcvax.UUCP> root@ogcvax.UUCP (Bruce Jerrick) has some good comments about reasonable ways to provide software that runs on a variety of Unix variants. I agree with all of it, but I wish to pick a nit with this: > >2. Have a "clean:" target in the Makefile that will get rid of > files created in the auto-configuration procedure. Doing > a "make clean", then checking the original versions back out > should get everything back to the state as it was when distributed. > The idea is good, but the actual name of the target should not be "clean:" if you want to use it on AT&T variants. The names "all:", "install:", "clean:", and "clobber:" are conventionally used as targets for compile, compile/install, remove intermediate files, and remove all created files. (These targets are used by the automated remake scripts and show up in a lot of makefiles. It would be hard to change.) Perhaps "reset:" or "startover:" would be a better name. The referenced note also went to net.sources so I am doing the same for this note. Future discussion, if any, should be confined to unix-wizards. -- -- Greg Noel, NCR Torrey Pines Greg@sdcsvax.UUCP or Greg@nosc.ARPA