Re: [PATCH] Makefile: Add help target

On 09/28/2010 01:37 PM, Sverre Rabbelier wrote:

Heya,

On Tue, Sep 28, 2010 at 11:45, Junio C Hamano[off-list ref]  wrote:

quoted

I do not look forward to having to maintain a large number of lines that
are doomed to go stale

How often have we changed makefile targets recently? The most recent
one that I can find is Jakub adding "install-gitweb" in 152d94348f,
which was back in May 1st. The next one before that is the addition of
'gitweb' in 62331ef1637f which was back in January 30th. Besides,
'make help' doesn't have to contain _all_ Makefile targets, just the
important ones that a user is most likely to need. Similar to 'git
help' itself.

quoted

and every time we need to touch we need to deal
with a lot of noise "@echo '"?

I don't understand what is particularly bothersome about the leading
"@echo" lines. Adding or removing a target is still very easy even
with the leading @echo's, the only thing that would be a PITA is
reflowing paragraphs, currently, there _are_ no paragraphs, everything
fits on one line.

quoted

It might be a bit less distasteful if it were plain text additions at the
end of INSTALL file, though.

That does not help me nearly as much when I want to know how a
makefile target is called. Am I wrong in asserting that having a "make
help" target is an accepted "good practice" in the unix world?

help:
    @echo Available make targets:
    @echo -----------------------
    @$(MAKE) --print-data-base --question | \
	sed -n -e '/^Makefile/d' -e 's/^\([a-z0-9_-]*\):.*/\1/p' | \
	sort | uniq | grep -v -e ^git -e ^test-

Automatically self-managing and seems to print most sensible targets.
Adjust to taste with whatever's appropriate.

Users with a too-old make program (pre 3.67, I think), won't be able
to use the help target, but that's perfectly acceptable imo.

-- 
Andreas Ericsson                   andreas.ericsson@op5.se
OP5 AB                             www.op5.se
Tel: +46 8-230225                  Fax: +46 8-230231

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