Re: Patch to INSTALL.CVS to clarify why `make bootstrap' sometimes fails.

[David Kastrup]

Eli Zaretskii <address@hidden> writes:

>> From: David Kastrup <address@hidden>
>> Cc: address@hidden,  address@hidden,  address@hidden
>> Date: Sun, 08 Jun 2008 00:22:16 +0200
>> 
>> >> > And then what does one do if a bootstrap fails half-way through, and
>> >> > one wants to continue it after fixing the problem?
>> >> 
>> >> That's an expert operation with tripup potential.
>> >
>> > No, it isn't.  Continuing from where the previous run with the same
>> > arguments left off is a normal Make operation.
>> 
>> bootstrap is not exactly a standard target, and we don't have a target
>> bootstrap-clean that would avoid having to call configure from scratch.
>
> What I described above is common for _all_ targets in the Makefile.
> That's how Make works, so deliberately disrupting that to such an
> extreme degree as suggested here would unpleasantly surprise users.

Do you really think that it is common for typical users to habitually
fix bootstrap errors and continue, to a degree where they get annoyed
when this process loses them 10 minutes "each time"?  And they won't, in
all their annoyance, read the docs or Makefile and discover
"bootstrap-continue"?  I find that hard to believe.

Anyway, how about including my repeated suggestion of a
"bootstrap-clean" target in your browbeating while you are standing up
for the status quo?

-- 
David Kastrup, Kriemhildstr. 15, 44793 Bochum