lois@hpfcdc.HP.COM (Lois Gerber) (02/21/90)
This question is directed at OLD (and I mean OLD) Unix gurus : Can anyone explain to me clearly what the -b option is for in make? The man page does not explain it well at all. Thanks in advance for any enlightenment. Lois Gerber lois@hpfclj UDL, Fort Collins
roy@phri.nyu.edu (Roy Smith) (02/22/90)
lois@hpfcdc.HP.COM (Lois Gerber) writes: > This question is directed at OLD (and I mean OLD) Unix gurus : > Can anyone explain to me clearly what the -b option is for in make? Beats the hell out of me. I can't even find make in my (6th edition) Unix manual at all. Did I get a defective manual? -- Roy Smith, Public Health Research Institute 455 First Avenue, New York, NY 10016 roy@alanine.phri.nyu.edu -OR- {att,philabs,cmcl2,rutgers,hombre}!phri!roy "My karma ran over my dogma"
ray@ctbilbo.UUCP (Ray Ward) (02/23/90)
In article <1990Feb22.042021.4936@phri.nyu.edu> roy@phri.nyu.edu (Roy Smith) writes: >lois@hpfcdc.HP.COM (Lois Gerber) writes: >> This question is directed at OLD (and I mean OLD) Unix gurus : >> Can anyone explain to me clearly what the -b option is for in make? > Beats the hell out of me. I can't even find make in my (6th >edition) Unix manual at all. Did I get a defective manual? I would suspect the -b came in somewhere around System III. Steve Talbott's _Managing Projects with Make_ ( O'Reilly and Assoc. 1-800-338-NUTS ) describes the option: The -b option is, in most implementations, on by default. It assures backward compatibility with earlier versions of _make_, so that old description files continue to work. I have no idea what the old description file format differences were. -- =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= Ray Ward Email: uunet!ctbilbo!ray Voice: (214) 991-8338x226, (800) 331-7032 Fax : (214) 991-8968 =-=-=-=- There _are_ simple answers, just no _easy_ ones. -- R.R. -=-=-=-=
meissner@osf.org (Michael Meissner) (02/23/90)
In article <23@ctbilbo.UUCP> ray@ctbilbo.UUCP (Ray Ward) writes: | In article <1990Feb22.042021.4936@phri.nyu.edu> roy@phri.nyu.edu (Roy Smith) writes: | >lois@hpfcdc.HP.COM (Lois Gerber) writes: | >> This question is directed at OLD (and I mean OLD) Unix gurus : | >> Can anyone explain to me clearly what the -b option is for in make? | > Beats the hell out of me. I can't even find make in my (6th | >edition) Unix manual at all. Did I get a defective manual? | | I would suspect the -b came in somewhere around System III. Steve Talbott's | _Managing Projects with Make_ ( O'Reilly and Assoc. 1-800-338-NUTS ) | describes the option: | | The -b option is, in most implementations, on by default. It | assures backward compatibility with earlier versions of _make_, | so that old description files continue to work. | | I have no idea what the old description file format differences were. In practice, -b serves another use. If you have recursive makefiles, you usually use (on System V) something like: dir/foo: dir/foo.c cd dir; $(MAKE) -$(MAKEFLAGS) foo If no arguments were passed to the toplevel make, then the recursive make would get a plain "-", which means that the Makefile is passed via standard input. Since -b is implicitly set, it is passed on to the recursive make. -- Michael Meissner email: meissner@osf.org phone: 617-621-8861 Open Software Foundation, 11 Cambridge Center, Cambridge, MA Catproof is an oxymoron, Childproof is nearly so
cpcahil@virtech.uucp (Conor P. Cahill) (02/24/90)
In article <1990Feb22.042021.4936@phri.nyu.edu> roy@phri.nyu.edu (Roy Smith) writes: >lois@hpfcdc.HP.COM (Lois Gerber) writes: >> This question is directed at OLD (and I mean OLD) Unix gurus : >> Can anyone explain to me clearly what the -b option is for in make? > > Beats the hell out of me. I can't even find make in my (6th >edition) Unix manual at all. Did I get a defective manual? That's because it isn't a flag in older makes. It is a flag to a newer make (just where the newer started I'm not sure) that gives it some form of compatibility with the older make. If you don't know what it is needed for, then don't worry about it since you probably won't need it. -- +-----------------------------------------------------------------------+ | Conor P. Cahill uunet!virtech!cpcahil 703-430-9247 ! | Virtual Technologies Inc., P. O. Box 876, Sterling, VA 22170 | +-----------------------------------------------------------------------+
bzs@world.std.com (Barry Shein) (02/27/90)
>> Beats the hell out of me. I can't even find make in my (6th >>edition) Unix manual at all. Did I get a defective manual? > >That's because it isn't a flag in older makes. It is a flag to a newer >make (just where the newer started I'm not sure) that gives it some >form of compatibility with the older make. No, I think that's because make was not distributed with V6. I believe make first came out of PWB which was a much later distribution (mostly V6 based, but with things like make added in.) Originally the V6 kernel and utilities were built with shell scripts called "run" or something like that. -- -Barry Shein Software Tool & Die | {xylogics,uunet}!world!bzs | bzs@world.std.com Purveyors to the Trade | Voice: 617-739-0202 | Login: 617-739-WRLD