[unix-pc.general] Heres a neat trick for use with make

dave@galaxia.zone1.com (David H. Brierley) (09/22/88)

I just finished reading the article someone posted about the GNU programs
and I noticed that he said he always runs make by typing "make CC=gcc".
If you want to always use a compiler other than "cc" (i.e. gcc or ccc)
you can set the CC variable in your environment.  I had gotten into the
habit of always typing "make CC=ccc" so that I would always link with the
shared library but every once in a while I would forget.  Then I remembered
reading that some of the newer System V versions of make allowed the various
macros to be set from the environment so I tried it out and it worked!  Now
I have a line in my .profile that says "CC=ccc export CC" and I can just
type "make" without worrying about it.  Of course, every once in a while
you come across a makefile where someone has used "cc" instead of "$(CC)"
and you have to go fix it up but thats not too much of a problem.

On another note entirely, many thanks to Emmet for the work he's done on Pcomm.
I have only encountered a few bugs in the program and only one of them lasted
long enough for me to send in a bug report.  The only thing I have found
lacking in this program is the ability to process some kind of automated
script file.  It occured to me however, that with the addition of the
"external" file transfer protocol option I could write a program which would
perform the script function.  If anyone else is thinking along the same lines
let me know so we can coordinate things and avoid duplication of effort.  If
you dont have the ambition to write the program but you have some great ideas
for things you would like it to be able to do, let me know that too.
-- 
David H. Brierley
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