Re: [PATCH] Makefile: Add help target
- From
Andreas Ericsson <ae@op5.se>
- Date
- Sep 28, 2010, 12:35 UTC
- Message-ID
- <4CA1E10F.4080906@op5.se>
- In-Reply-To
- <AANLkTi=beUW5j4WSGOB__LNP7o60Wep_Y9n4YXOZUMtU@mail.gmail.com>
On 09/28/2010 01:37 PM, Sverre Rabbelier wrote:
Show 30 quoted lines
> Heya, > > On Tue, Sep 28, 2010 at 11:45, Junio C Hamano<gitster@pobox.com> wrote: >> 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. > >> 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. > >> 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 Considering the successes of the wars on alcohol, poverty, drugs and terror, I think we should give some serious thought to declaring war on peace.