Re: [Axiom-developer] PRECIOUS and Rosetta

[Waldek Hebisch]

> Waldek Hebisch <address@hidden> writes:
> 
> | I wrote that there are three problem latexing build improvement
> | but in fact there are more.  Namely, Makefile mark .dvi files
> | as .PRECIOUS so that even if Latex fails, garbled .dvi lies on
> | disk and is used (skipping Latex run) on the next make run.
> | This can easily hide errors: it seems that I re-run make twice
> | and it skipped over an error.
> | 
> | I think that in general we should remove most .PRECIOUS rules
> | fom Makefile: when we get error generating a file we _want_ the
> | file to be re-made on the next run (after all, we want to fix
> | the problem and check our solution).
> 
> I would like to see your candidates for removal before I say
> anything.  I don't see a blank rule for removing "most .PRECIOUS"
> rules yet.  
> 

ATM most Makfiles (and 'config/setup-dep.mk) contain rules of the sort:

.PRECIOUS: %.tex
.PRECIOUS: %.dvi
.PRECIOUS: %.o

I think that blank .PRECIOUS is may be justified _only_ for self-modifying
Makefiles.  All other files need strong justification.




-- 
                              Waldek Hebisch
address@hidden