Path: utzoo!utgpu!watmath!dgharriss
From: dgharriss@watmath.waterloo.edu (Dermot G. Harriss)
Newsgroups: uw.mfcf.people
Subject: inscrutable makefiles
Message-ID: <29679@watmath.waterloo.edu>
Date: 2 Oct 89 13:55:35 GMT
Reply-To: dgharriss@watmath.waterloo.edu (Dermot G. Harriss)
Distribution: uw
Organization: Math Faculty Computing Facility, University of Waterloo
Lines: 14

I think I agree with JMS.  I would like to be able to see exactly what
a broken or suspect makefile is doing.  It sometimes isn't enough to 
read the source: what with .INCLUDES, conditional scripts, and 
dependencies, it can be difficult to trace control flow.  On the other
hand, I don't like makefiles that execute frequently and usually
correctly to babble at me.

How about a command line switch for Waterloo make that defeats the 
effect of `@' and .SILENT?  Call it -v, and its inline companion 
.NOISY, and possibly an environment variable NOISYMAKE.  One could the
use `@' throughout a Makefile (or .SILENT) to keep it quiet in the
normal case, and -v to see what's happening if it breaks.  Those who
always like to see the trace could alise make to make -v or set the
environemnt variable.