Re: release and test targets

[Bob Proulx]

Ralf Corsepius wrote:
> Baurzhan Ismagulov wrote:
> > release:
> >         $(MAKE) CFLAGS=-O2 prefix=/usr sysconfdir=/etc localstatedir=/var
>
> You are miss interpreting automake's tasks. Packaging is not of
> automake's business.

The above technique really has nothing to do with automake and just
deals with make by itself.  It is obviously just a convenience
target.  But convenience targets are, well, convenient.

I will guess that what you are probably really objecting to, or at
least as well, is using the makefile to install things directly into
the system's live running directories of /usr and /etc.  I see that
and it makes me cringe.  Much better to use a package manager such as
dpkg or rpm for such tasks.  I would rather see that trigger a debuild
or an rpmbuild and create a real package instead.

> Your approach isn't much more but a short-cut to your personal and local
> practice and setup. It is wrong and therefore inapplicable almost
> anywhere else.

I agree it is inapplicable elsewhere.  But I disagree it is wrong.  If
you are the developer and want a short-cut target in your makefile and
it does not damage anything else then I believe that would be okay.
It adds convenience and removes nothing.

There are actually a lot of projects that add local project specific
targets to their makefile.  Few people outside the project know about
it because the public interface of 'tar xzf ...; ./configure; make;
make install' all work as expected and they never see the typing aides
internal to the development of the project.

Bob