insufficient debug info from gnu-make

[Peter Lawrence]

Sirs,
        in trying to debug a failing gcc build, it seems that the  
real trouble is that there doesn't seem to be any easy way to figure  
out what directory/file[line number] a make command comes from, for  
example I see as output:


make[3]: *** No rule to make target `real-install-headers-tar'.  Stop.


and I cannot even tell what makefile is being processed in what  
directory,   farther up in the captured output of make I see:


/bin/sh ../../gcc-4.3.3/gcc/../move-if-change tmp-fixinc_list  
fixinc_list
echo timestamp > s-fixinc_list
rm -rf include-fixed; mkdir include-fixed
chmod a+rx include-fixed



and I grep for fixinc_list in */Makefile to find it is in gcc/ 
Makefile, OK, but I should not have to resort to such antics, make  
could be outputting this directory/file information as a normal  
operation.



here is where the offending command originates:

$(MAKE) real-$(INSTALL_HEADERS_DIR) DESTDIR=`pwd`/../gcc/ \
            libsubdir=. ; \


as you can see it is virtually impossible for a reader that is not  
already intimately familiar with these specific makefiles to be able  
to read the "*** No rule to make target `real-install-headers-tar`.  
Stop." message and find the corresponding line "$(MAKE) real-$ 
(INSTALL_HEADERS_DIR) ..."   all the macro usage makes it impossible  
to search for corresponding strings, the strings don't correspond  
unless you know all the macros by heart and do your own reverse- 
substitution.

so the only recourse is directory/file[line]  information about where  
the command came from...






I seem to remember, perhaps it was Sun's make, that did output  
directory/file[line] information, and I am now feeling a strong  
longing to be back in that environment, we should be doing the same  
with gnu's make.



-Peter Lawrence.