Re: Conventions on build variables

[Bob Friesenhahn]

On Thu, 8 Aug 2019, Sébastien Hinderer wrote:

> Dear all,
>
> Are there some conventions about the properties a build system should
> have regarding certain standard build variables?
>
> For instance, regarding variables such as CC or CFLAGS, when they are
> passed to configure, should they be recorded somewhere so that a future
> invocation of make takes them into account?

Yes, they should normally be recorded in the Makefile so that they are 
used in the build.  If you use Automake in conjunction with Autoconf, 
this is done automatically.  Otherwise you need to make sure that the 
necessary artifacts are in Makefile.in.

> Is there a document describing how a build system is expected to behave
> with respect to these variables?

The standard INSTALL file (which is inluded with autoconf and 
automake) describes these variables.  Look for the GNU coding 
standards on the fsf.org site for more details.

Bob
--
Bob Friesenhahn
address@hidden, http://www.simplesystems.org/users/bfriesen/
GraphicsMagick Maintainer,    http://www.GraphicsMagick.org/
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