# [PATCH] Makefile: add help target 5 messages from 2022-04-08 to 2022-04-08. Participants: Elia Pinto, Philip Oakley, Taylor Blau, Ævar Arnfjörð Bjarmason, Junio C Hamano. Thread: https://gitlist.dev/t/57694 ## Elia Pinto, 2022-04-08 07:45 Subject: [PATCH] Makefile: add help target Message-ID: <20220408074524.156165-1-gitter.spiros@gmail.com> URL: https://gitlist.dev/e/20220408074524.156165-1-gitter.spiros%40gmail.com ``` Add a help target to the Makefile to be able to run make help, in the same way does the Makefiles self-generated by some build systems. The target list has been statically extracted from the git Makefile with a script and the results have been filtered in an essentially arbitrary way to leave the ones that i imagines most interesting and frequent for a developer. Signed-off-by: Elia Pinto --- The toy script I used is here https://gist.github.com/devzero2000/cb887a6ba2764f7234191e560b64b7c8#file-list_targets_makefile-sh Makefile | 63 ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ 1 file changed, 63 insertions(+) diff --git a/Makefile b/Makefile index e8aba291d7..f6d6de2eb9 100644 --- a/Makefile +++ b/Makefile @@ -3448,3 +3448,66 @@ $(FUZZ_PROGRAMS): all $(XDIFF_OBJS) $(EXTLIBS) git.o $@.o $(LIB_FUZZING_ENGINE) -o $@ fuzz-all: $(FUZZ_PROGRAMS) + +# Help Target +help: + @echo "The following are some of the valid targets for this Makefile:" + @echo "... all (the default if no target is provided)" + @echo "... build-perl-script" + @echo "... build-python-script" + @echo "... build-sh-script" + @echo "... check" + @echo "... check-builtins" + @echo "... check-docs" + @echo "... check-sha1" + @echo "... clean" + @echo "... clean-perl-script" + @echo "... clean-python-script" + @echo "... clean-sh-script" + @echo "... coccicheck" + @echo "... coccicheck-pending" + @echo "... cocciclean" + @echo "... configure" + @echo "... coverage" + @echo "... coverage-clean" + @echo "... coverage-clean-results" + @echo "... coverage-compile" + @echo "... coverage-prove" + @echo "... coverage-report" + @echo "... coverage-test" + @echo "... coverage-untested-functions" + @echo "... cover_db" + @echo "... cover_db_html" + @echo "... cscope" + @echo "... dist" + @echo "... distclean" + @echo "... dist-doc" + @echo "... doc" + @echo "... fuzz-all" + @echo "... fuzz-commit-graph" + @echo "... fuzz-objs" + @echo "... fuzz-pack-headers" + @echo "... fuzz-pack-idx" + @echo "... html" + @echo "... info" + @echo "... install" + @echo "... man" + @echo "... pdf" + @echo "... perf" + @echo "... profile" + @echo "... profile-clean" + @echo "... profile-fast" + @echo "... profile-fast-install" + @echo "... profile-install" + @echo "... quick-install-doc" + @echo "... quick-install-html" + @echo "... quick-install-man" + @echo "... reconfigure" + @echo "... rpm" + @echo "... sparse" + @echo "... strip" + @echo "... style" + @echo "... tags" + @echo "... TAGS" + @echo "... test" +.PHONY : help -- 2.35.1 ``` ## Philip Oakley, 2022-04-08 09:32 Subject: Re: [PATCH] Makefile: add help target Message-ID: URL: https://gitlist.dev/e/c141359f-651f-8fea-4c95-5881c597f33c%40iee.email In-Reply-To: <20220408074524.156165-1-gitter.spiros@gmail.com> ``` On 08/04/2022 08:45, Elia Pinto wrote: > Add a help target to the Makefile to be able to run make help, in the same way > does the Makefiles self-generated by some build systems. > > The target list has been statically extracted from the git Makefile with a > script and the results have been filtered in an essentially arbitrary way to > leave the ones that i imagines most interesting and frequent for a developer. > > Signed-off-by: Elia Pinto > --- > The toy script I used is here > https://gist.github.com/devzero2000/cb887a6ba2764f7234191e560b64b7c8#file-list_targets_makefile-sh > Makefile | 63 ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ > 1 file changed, 63 insertions(+) > > diff --git a/Makefile b/Makefile > index e8aba291d7..f6d6de2eb9 100644 > --- a/Makefile > +++ b/Makefile > @@ -3448,3 +3448,66 @@ $(FUZZ_PROGRAMS): all > $(XDIFF_OBJS) $(EXTLIBS) git.o $@.o $(LIB_FUZZING_ENGINE) -o $@ > > fuzz-all: $(FUZZ_PROGRAMS) > + > +# Help Target > +help: > + @echo "The following are some of the valid targets for this Makefile:" > + @echo "... all (the default if no target is provided)" > + @echo "... build-perl-script" > + @echo "... build-python-script" > + @echo "... build-sh-script" > + @echo "... check" > + @echo "... check-builtins" > + @echo "... check-docs" > + @echo "... check-sha1" > + @echo "... clean" > + @echo "... clean-perl-script" > + @echo "... clean-python-script" > + @echo "... clean-sh-script" > + @echo "... coccicheck" > + @echo "... coccicheck-pending" > + @echo "... cocciclean" > + @echo "... configure" > + @echo "... coverage" > + @echo "... coverage-clean" > + @echo "... coverage-clean-results" > + @echo "... coverage-compile" > + @echo "... coverage-prove" > + @echo "... coverage-report" > + @echo "... coverage-test" > + @echo "... coverage-untested-functions" > + @echo "... cover_db" > + @echo "... cover_db_html" > + @echo "... cscope" > + @echo "... dist" > + @echo "... distclean" > + @echo "... dist-doc" > + @echo "... doc" > + @echo "... fuzz-all" > + @echo "... fuzz-commit-graph" > + @echo "... fuzz-objs" > + @echo "... fuzz-pack-headers" > + @echo "... fuzz-pack-idx" > + @echo "... html" > + @echo "... info" > + @echo "... install" > + @echo "... man" > + @echo "... pdf" > + @echo "... perf" > + @echo "... profile" > + @echo "... profile-clean" > + @echo "... profile-fast" > + @echo "... profile-fast-install" > + @echo "... profile-install" > + @echo "... quick-install-doc" > + @echo "... quick-install-html" > + @echo "... quick-install-man" > + @echo "... reconfigure" > + @echo "... rpm" > + @echo "... sparse" > + @echo "... strip" > + @echo "... style" > + @echo "... tags" > + @echo "... TAGS" > + @echo "... test" > +.PHONY : help Makes me realise how many areas I'm unfamiliar with, .. which is a help. ;-) -- Philip ``` ## Taylor Blau, 2022-04-08 15:30 Subject: Re: [PATCH] Makefile: add help target Message-ID: URL: https://gitlist.dev/e/YlBVBlwNVc8mEjn5%40nand.local In-Reply-To: <20220408074524.156165-1-gitter.spiros@gmail.com> ``` On Fri, Apr 08, 2022 at 07:45:24AM +0000, Elia Pinto wrote: > Add a help target to the Makefile to be able to run make help, in the same way > does the Makefiles self-generated by some build systems. > > The target list has been statically extracted from the git Makefile with a > script and the results have been filtered in an essentially arbitrary way to > leave the ones that i imagines most interesting and frequent for a developer. I could definitely see something like "make help" being helpful, since make itself doesn't have a convenient way to list all of a Makefile's targets. I worry about this list getting stale, though. If we add a new target, will we remember to update the "help" list here? It would be nice if we could dynamically generate this list, but I think that loses out on the filtering you've done here. Thanks, Taylor ``` ## Ævar Arnfjörð Bjarmason, 2022-04-08 15:44 Subject: Re: [PATCH] Makefile: add help target Message-ID: <220408.86a6cvbme0.gmgdl@evledraar.gmail.com> URL: https://gitlist.dev/e/220408.86a6cvbme0.gmgdl%40evledraar.gmail.com In-Reply-To: ``` On Fri, Apr 08 2022, Taylor Blau wrote: > On Fri, Apr 08, 2022 at 07:45:24AM +0000, Elia Pinto wrote: >> Add a help target to the Makefile to be able to run make help, in the same way >> does the Makefiles self-generated by some build systems. >> >> The target list has been statically extracted from the git Makefile with a >> script and the results have been filtered in an essentially arbitrary way to >> leave the ones that i imagines most interesting and frequent for a developer. > > I could definitely see something like "make help" being helpful, since > make itself doesn't have a convenient way to list all of a Makefile's > targets. > > I worry about this list getting stale, though. If we add a new target, > will we remember to update the "help" list here? It would be nice if we > could dynamically generate this list, but I think that loses out on the > filtering you've done here. There's some nice suggestions at: https://stackoverflow.com/questions/4219255/how-do-you-get-the-list-of-targets-in-a-makefile I managed to get pretty close to this by massaging the various parsers that were suggested there. But I wonder if defining help as we go along wouldn't be the best and least likely to break, and most likely to be kept up-to-date. I.e. some variant of the comments added there. Or better (maybe it's discussed in that SO thing, I didn't skim it all), something like: HELP_all = the default target all:: [...] We could then even print a heading showing what target(s) we're running by looking at MAKECMDGOALS. Also, Elia's ad-hoc script here copied from StackOverflow looks awfully similar to what I have in /usr/share/bash-completion/completions/make installed with my OS. Available here: https://github.com/scop/bash-completion/blob/master/completions/make So maybe we could just make this an optional target that depended on that widely-available bash completion? That would also have the nice benefit that to the extent that the output sucked we could maybe massage our Makefile a bit to make it better, and then we'd not only benefit "make help" users, but anyone doing "make ". ``` ## Junio C Hamano, 2022-04-08 18:58 Subject: Re: [PATCH] Makefile: add help target Message-ID: URL: https://gitlist.dev/e/xmqq1qy7mmgf.fsf%40gitster.g In-Reply-To: ``` Taylor Blau writes: > I could definitely see something like "make help" being helpful, since > make itself doesn't have a convenient way to list all of a Makefile's > targets. But is listing all useful to begin with? I doubt it. Most useful targets are all .PHONYs, so a possible approach is to make them double-colon rules, and have a section at the top, next to where we explain "# The default target of this Makefile is...", that lists all of them there, and have a rule # The default target of this Makefile is... all:: +# Common targets +test:: +doc:: +... +help:: + sed -e '/help::/q' Makefile # Import tree-wide shared Makefile behavior and libraries include shared.mak perhaps? > I worry about this list getting stale, though. Absolutely. A well-curated list of common targets, maybe, but I find nothing interesting in the posted patch that lists way too many. I also suspect that a well-curated list at the top would eliminate the need for the "help" target in the first place. Between "make help" and "less Makefile", the latter is much more intuitive. Thanks. ```