[Devel] makepp 1.18 fails with current FreeType

[Werner LEMBERG]

[makepp, available from makepp.sf.net, is a make utility written in
 Perl]

After a longer time I tried makepp 1.18 again with the recent FreeType
version 2.1.7 (from ftp://ftp.freetype.org) on my GNU/Linux box, and I
encountered the following problems:

  . After saying `makepp --noimplicit-load devel' I see this:

    ==================================================================

      Loading makefile /home/ft/zxc/Makefile
      makepp: Entering directory `/home/ft/zxc'

      FreeType build system -- automatic system detection

      The following settings are used:

        platform                    unix
        compiler                    gcc
        configuration directory     ./builds/unix
        configuration rules         ./builds/unix/unix-dev.mk

      If this does not correspond to your system or settings please
      remove the file `config.mk' from this directory then read the
      INSTALL file for help.

      Otherwise, simply type `/usr/bin/perl
      /usr/local/share/makepp/recursive_makepp' again to build the
      library, or `/usr/bin/perl
      /usr/local/share/makepp/recursive_makepp refdoc' to build the
      API reference (the latter needs python).

    ==================================================================

    - Why `/usr/bin/perl /usr/local/share/makepp/recursive_makepp'?
      The message references the $(MAKE) variable: Shouldn't this
      simply expand to `makepp'?  Perhaps you should make a difference
      between $(MAKE) used as a command in recursive builds and
      $(MAKE) referenced in a message.

  . A following `makepp --noimplicit-load' then gives this error:

      Loading makefile /home/ft/zxc/Makefile
      makepp: Entering directory `/home/ft/zxc'
      gcc -ansi -pedantic -I/home/ft/zxc/objs -I/home/ft/zxc/devel
          -I/home/ft/zxc/include -c -g -O0 -fno-strict-aliasing -Wall
          -W -Wundef -Wshadow -Wpointer-arith -Wwrite-strings
          -Wstrict-prototypes -Wredundant-decls -Wnested-externs
          -Wno-long-long -oobjs/ftsystem.o -osrc/base/ftsystem.c
      gcc: No input files
      makepp: error (1), stopping now

    Note the two `-o' options; the latter argument shouldn't just be
    `src/base/ftsystem.c'.

  . It would be nice to have a short flag name for
    `--noimplicit-load'...

  . You write in dirs.html:

      Implicit makefile loading is also automatically turned off if
      makepp sees a reference to $(MAKE) anywhere in your makefile.
      $(MAKE) is used for recursive make invocations in old makefiles.
      If makepp sees $(MAKE), it assumes that directories are taken
      care of explicitly by recursive invocations of make.  Experience
      shows that implicit loading often gets in the way for legacy
      makefiles that use recursive make, and so makepp turns it off.

    I suggest that makepp is changed to scan whether $(MAKE) is used
    as a command.  If it just happens in a message, implicit makefile
    loading should probably not be disabled.

  . Finally a question: Have there been any efforts meanwhile to port
    makepp to non-Unix platforms?


     Werner