Recursive Make Considered Harmful (was: Re: executing a rule prior to any targets?)

[gk]

At 01:57 AM 10/20/2002 -0700, Philip Guenther wrote:
> I don't know what Paul was referring to in the manual, but I will
> suggest that you read, if you haven't already, the "Recursive Make
> Considered Harmful" paper by Peter Miller:
>
> http://owlsoft.ne.client2.attbi.com/build/rmch/recu-make-cons-harm.html


Thank you very much - excellent discussion. I am thoroughly convinced this 
is the way to go:
make should only ever be run from the top level directory, using a single 
makefile (which includes all others, in subdirectories).

Fortunately, my current system is not far from the goal Miller describes:
I already have all makefiles in subdirectories being auto-generated from 
top level rules and included by the top level makefile.

The key change I need to make is that all generated dependencies use 
filename paths relative from the TOP level directory (or absolute paths).
As a convenience, my system will automatically cd to top level project 
directory if 'make' command is issued from any subdirectory.

If anyone has contrary experience of the validity of Miller's arguments I'd 
love to hear them.

Greg Keraunen <address@hidden>