dgharriss@watmath.waterloo.edu (Dermot G. Harriss) (10/02/89)
I think I agree with JMS. I would like to be able to see exactly what a broken or suspect makefile is doing. It sometimes isn't enough to read the source: what with .INCLUDES, conditional scripts, and dependencies, it can be difficult to trace control flow. On the other hand, I don't like makefiles that execute frequently and usually correctly to babble at me. How about a command line switch for Waterloo make that defeats the effect of `@' and .SILENT? Call it -v, and its inline companion .NOISY, and possibly an environment variable NOISYMAKE. One could the use `@' throughout a Makefile (or .SILENT) to keep it quiet in the normal case, and -v to see what's happening if it breaks. Those who always like to see the trace could alise make to make -v or set the environemnt variable.