Re: How specify dependences on URL

[Maxim Yegorushkin]

On 04/12/09 16:00, Peng Yu wrote:
> On Fri, Dec 4, 2009 at 8:37 AM, Allan Odgaard
> <address@hidden>  wrote:
> > On 4 Dec 2009, at 14:19, Peng Yu wrote:
> >
> > > Suppose I want to download the file http://some_website/some_file
> > > whenever it is newer than the local file. This needs the specification
> > > of the dependency on URLs. I'm wondering if it is possible to do so in
> > > gnu make.
> >
> > URLs don’t have dates. A GET/HEAD request may return a ‘Last-Modified’
> > header and you can do conditional requests using that or the entity tag, but
> > these things are beyond make.
>
> Some programs (e.g. rsync) support various network protocols. It would
> be nice that gnu make also support these protocols. Will this
> functionality be considered to be added in gnu make in the future?

Because make operates on files you can make it work with any of these 
protocols easily by using virtual filesystems. No need to change make to 
support protocols directly.

Something like http://www.inf.bme.hu/~mszeredi/avfs/
<q>
AVFS is a system, which enables all programs to look inside archived or 
compressed files, or access remote files without recompiling the 
programs or changing the kernel.
</q>

--
Max