From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Return-Path: Received: (qmail 62997 invoked by alias); 17 Nov 2016 19:11:25 -0000 Mailing-List: contact gdb-patches-help@sourceware.org; run by ezmlm Precedence: bulk List-Id: List-Subscribe: List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: , Sender: gdb-patches-owner@sourceware.org Received: (qmail 62971 invoked by uid 89); 17 Nov 2016 19:11:24 -0000 Authentication-Results: sourceware.org; auth=none X-Virus-Found: No X-Spam-SWARE-Status: No, score=-1.2 required=5.0 tests=AWL,BAYES_00,SPF_HELO_PASS,SPF_SOFTFAIL autolearn=no version=3.3.2 spammy=centos, 2014-05, 201405, opens X-Spam-User: qpsmtpd, 2 recipients X-HELO: simark.ca Received: from simark.ca (HELO simark.ca) (158.69.221.121) by sourceware.org (qpsmtpd/0.93/v0.84-503-g423c35a) with ESMTP; Thu, 17 Nov 2016 19:11:14 +0000 Received: by simark.ca (Postfix, from userid 33) id B316D1E93D; Thu, 17 Nov 2016 14:11:12 -0500 (EST) To: binutils@sourceware.org, gdb-patches@sourceware.org Subject: Require GNU make to build binutils-gdb X-PHP-Originating-Script: 33:rcube.php MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII; format=flowed Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Date: Thu, 17 Nov 2016 19:11:00 -0000 From: Simon Marchi Message-ID: <144f4f68acf24fc1084b585700c65b63@polymtl.ca> X-Sender: simon.marchi@polymtl.ca User-Agent: Roundcube Webmail/1.2.2 X-IsSubscribed: yes X-SW-Source: 2016-11/txt/msg00490.txt.bz2 Hi binutils-gdb folks, In gdb/, we are now making use of GNU make-specific features (in particular, pattern rules), so we now require building with GNU make. We based our decision on the fact that, for every platform on which we are aware people build GDB on, GNU make is easily available. In fact, according to the echoes we got, people already use gmake to build gdb everywhere. Pedro determined that GNU make 3.81 was practically universally available: https://sourceware.org/ml/gdb-patches/2016-11/msg00475.html Additionally, CentOS 6 (so probably RHEL6 as well) and Ubuntu 14.04 have 3.81 in their repos. Just those two probably represent a significant user base. So, unless we have a really good reason to require something more recent, I think it makes sense to require GNU make >= 3.81. For simplicity and consistency, we were wondering if we should adopt the same policy for the whole binutils-gdb tree. While not necessary, it opens up the door to using GNU make-specific constructs in other Makefiles in the tree, possibly improving readability and maintainability. This change in GDB gives a good idea: http://tinyurl.com/hb8ozrz There was a discussion in 2014 that spun off another thread. Nobody seemed against the idea, but there was no follow-up AFAICT: https://sourceware.org/ml/binutils/2014-05/msg00263.html In the eventuality this proposition is accepted, should we have a check in the top-level Makefile that warns the user early if their version of make is not supported? Simon