Since mailing you, I've seen it in other autoconf projects too (libevent I believe). It may impact all autoconf projects. I raised this on the autoconf list, but they weren't certain what to do about it. It could also be a bug in make.
Rob
On Thursday, August 11, 2011, Simon Josefsson <address@hidden> wrote: > Rob Napier <address@hidden> writes:
> >> I have a large build system that includes several third party autoconf >> libraries. To get everything on place I call "make install" on all the >> subprojects. That copies (and touches) the include files even if there has
>> been no changes. That causes the downstream build to rebuild a lot of >> things. >> >> I was using make -q to find out of I needed to do the sub-make before >> running it. I've worked around the problem using find -newer on the build
>> tree. > > Thanks for explaining. Makes sense. And libidn is the only > autoconf-project you have noticed this for? Is there a "maint.mk" in > any of the other projects, suggesting they also use gnulib's
> maintainer-makefile? I'm trying to pin-point whether gnulib is the > source of the problems or not. > > /Simon > >> Rob >> >> On Thursday, August 11, 2011, Simon Josefsson <address@hidden> wrote:
>>> Rob Napier <address@hidden> writes: >>> >>>> Thanks. My initial testing suggests it may be on rebuild. It'll often >> work
>>>> the first time, and then fail the next time I try. >>> >>> Yes, I don't understand why it happens either. The error codes are not >>> helpful in understanding the reason either. Hopefully someone on the
>>> gnulib list will have some ideas... >>> >>> Btw, what are you using 'make -q' for? >>> >>> /Simon >>> >>>> -Rob >>>>
>>>> On Wed, Aug 10, 2011 at 5:38 PM, Simon Josefsson <address@hidden >>>wrote: >>>> >>>>> Rob Napier <address@hidden> writes:
>>>>> >>>>> > In libidn-1.22, I am unable to use "make -q" to determine if it's >> already >>>>> > built. I haven't been able to determine yet what's causing this error
>>>>> (exit >>>>> > code=2). I've reproduced it on Linux and Mac so far. >>>>> >>>>> Hi Rob! Thanks for the report. I can reproduce the problem, but I have
>>>>> no idea why it happens. If you are someone else has some ideas or can >>>>> debug this further, that would be great. >>>>> >>>>> Meanwhile, I have asked on the gnulib list because it seems the problem
>>>>> is more widespread than just within libidn and I suspect gnulib is >>>>> involved. See post at: >>>>> >>>>> http://permalink.gmane.org/gmane.comp.lib.gnulib.bugs/27873
>>>>> >>>>> Thanks, >>>>> /Simon >>>>> >>> >