Re: suggestion for addition to make manual

[Lukas van de Wiel]

That would it make very clear. Just as when using groff!

Thanks a lot
Lukas

On Thu, Oct 17, 2013 at 3:39 PM, Edward Welbourne <address@hidden> wrote:

> If a variable is set in a parent makefile, and a child makefile is
> included, is the variable also set in the child makefile. And the other way
> around, when a variable is set in the child, is it also still usable in the
> parent, or does it fall out of scope.
>
> I have figured this out with a simple example, but it would be useful to
> have in the manual as well, I think. :)

Interesting.  I found it obvious that inclusion was as if the included
file were textually inserted at the point of inclusion; i.e. make
doesn't make do any scoping at all, it's all just one big sequence of
lines for make to read, from diverse files, in a single scope.  You
think that should be made explicit, presumably in node "3.3 Including
Other Makefiles".  The opening sentence is

  The `include' directive tells `make' to suspend reading the current
  makefile and read one or more other makefiles before continuing.

I suggest following that with:

  The text thus read is treated exactly as if it were part of the
  original makefile, textually included in place of the `include'
  directive.

Do you think that would have made it clear enough for you - before your
experiments taught you what actually happens ?

        Eddy.