On 5/6/09, Yang Zhang <address@hidden> wrote:
Is there a way to have GNU make cache copies of source files, so that when
rules are triggered by timestamp comparisons between targets and sources, it
will also compare the current source with the cached source to make sure
that it actually changed before executing the actions (only executing if
they differ)?
This sounded familiar - I found some older threads on the issue:
http://www.mail-archive.com/address@hidden/msg05559.html
http://www.mail-archive.com/address@hidden/msg04985.html
Also the solution here may work for you:
http://www.kolpackov.net/pipermail/notes/2004-September.txt
Ultimately what is your goal here? Are you trying to avoid the "change
a comment in a header rebuilds everything" issue, or do you have some
other timestamp problems? Keep in mind that doing a diff or using a
checksum to determine out-of-dateness isn't exactly cheap - you may be
trying to optimize a corner case to the detriment of the general case.