Re: Inconsistent VPATH behavior ..

[Harsha Kalidindi]

Paul:

> %% Harsha Kalidindi <address@hidden> writes:
>
>   >> If you run "make install", then make says "OK, I need to build
>   >> ../install/scripts/foo".  It looks to see if that file exists.  If it
>   >> does, then VPATH is never consulted.
>
>   hk> We expect the above behavior.
>
>   >> If it doesn't exist, then if VPATH is defined make uses it to try to
>   >> find the target.
>
>   hk> This is how it is working and it is still what we expect it to do.
>
>     [...]
>
>   hk> Does it look at the individual paths in VPATH plus the relative
>   hk> targets (../install/scripts/foo, in this case) first or does it
>   hk> look at just the relative targets from the directory of execution
>   hk> first?
>
> I'm not exactly sure I'm understanding you: I explained it and you said
> this is what you expected... then asked how it works :).

        You make me sound like some of current news makers ..

> GNU make works exactly as I've described above: first it looks for the
> pathname exactly as it is given in the makefile.

        Breakthrough. No more failure to communicate. This is the nub of 
the issue ..

> If that doesn't exist, _then_ it appends the pathname that is given  in
> the makefile onto each entry in VPATH, in order, and looks for that.

        VPATH=/u/p/src
        install: ../install/scripts/foo
                $(INSTALL) ..

        Command run in '/u/user/src'. If 
/u/user/src/../install/scripts/foo does not exist, I would expect it to run 
the command instead of looking into /u/p/src/../install/scripts/foo ..

        It is not running the command when 
/u/user/src/../install/scripts/foo does not exist.

Regards,
Harsha

address@hidden 212.762.4165

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