Re: eshell-defgroup fouls up `make bootstrap'.

[Stefan Monnier]

>> It's a fairly normal behavior in systems where the Makefile is itself
>> built from other file(s) such as Makefile.in and config.status.
>> Circularity is a normal occurrence, just like the need for bootstrap.

>> There's no software without recursion, really.

> It seems in this case there's no dependable "base case".  I get into an
> infinite loop, because 'make maintainer-clean', in order to "reset" the
> tree to a stable initial state can only work when the tree is already in
> a sufficiently stable state.  I think this is a bug, and perhaps I ought
> to try and fix it.  ;-)

There is a base case, but since the Makefile is a generated file, the
base case doesn't use "make".  It uses ./configure instead.  So if you do

   ./configure
   make bootstrap

it may fix your problem (then again, I wouldn't be surprised if it
doesn't).  If you want to preserve some of your config, you can try

   ./config.status --recheck
   make bootstrap

instead, which is pretty close to the base case so it's likely to work
just as well (or just as poorly as the case may be).

>> src/Makefile is built in an awkward way for hysterical raisins: it goes
[...]
> For some reason, that makes me feel better.  :-)

How odd!


        Stefan