GNU make NEWS -*-indented-text-*-
History of user-visible changes.
- 09 Oct 2013
+ 19 January 2020
See the end of this file for copyrights and conditions.
-All changes mentioned here are more fully described in the GNU make
-manual, which is contained in this distribution as the file doc/make.texi.
+All user-visible changes are more fully described in the GNU make manual,
+which is contained in this distribution as the file doc/make.texi.
See the README file and the GNU make manual for instructions for
reporting bugs.
\f
+Version 4.3 (19 Jan 2020)
+
+A complete list of bugs fixed in this version is available here:
+
+https://sv.gnu.org/bugs/index.php?group=make&report_id=111&fix_release_id=108&set=custom
+
+* WARNING: Backward-incompatibility!
+ Number signs (#) appearing inside a macro reference or function invocation
+ no longer introduce comments and should not be escaped with backslashes:
+ thus a call such as:
+ foo := $(shell echo '#')
+ is legal. Previously the number sign needed to be escaped, for example:
+ foo := $(shell echo '\#')
+ Now this latter will resolve to "\#". If you want to write makefiles
+ portable to both versions, assign the number sign to a variable:
+ H := \#
+ foo := $(shell echo '$H')
+ This was claimed to be fixed in 3.81, but wasn't, for some reason.
+ To detect this change search for 'nocomment' in the .FEATURES variable.
+
+* WARNING: Backward-incompatibility!
+ Previously appending using '+=' to an empty variable would result in a value
+ starting with a space. Now the initial space is only added if the variable
+ already contains some value. Similarly, appending an empty string does not
+ add a trailing space.
+
+* NOTE: Deprecated behavior.
+ Contrary to the documentation, suffix rules with prerequisites are being
+ treated BOTH as simple targets AND as pattern rules. Further, the
+ prerequisites are ignored by the pattern rules. POSIX specifies that in
+ order to be a suffix rule there can be no prerequisites defined. In this
+ release if POSIX mode is enabled then rules with prerequisites cannot be
+ suffix rules. If POSIX mode is not enabled then the previous behavior is
+ preserved (a pattern rule with no extra prerequisites is created) AND a
+ warning about this behavior is generated:
+ warning: ignoring prerequisites on suffix rule definition
+ The POSIX behavior will be adopted as the only behavior in a future release
+ of GNU make so please resolve any warnings.
+
+* New feature: Grouped explicit targets
+ Pattern rules have always had the ability to generate multiple targets with
+ a single invocation of the recipe. It's now possible to declare that an
+ explicit rule generates multiple targets with a single invocation. To use
+ this, replace the ":" token with "&:" in the rule. To detect this feature
+ search for 'grouped-target' in the .FEATURES special variable.
+ Implementation contributed by Kaz Kylheku <kaz@kylheku.com>
+
+* New feature: .EXTRA_PREREQS variable
+ Words in this variable are considered prerequisites of targets but they are
+ not added to any of the automatic variable values when expanding the
+ recipe. This variable can either be global (applies to all targets) or
+ a target-specific variable. To detect this feature search for 'extra-prereqs'
+ in the .FEATURES special variable.
+ Implementation contributed by Christof Warlich <cwarlich@gmx.de>
+
+* Makefiles can now specify the '-j' option in their MAKEFLAGS variable and
+ this will cause make to enable that parallelism mode.
+
+* GNU make will now use posix_spawn() on systems where it is available.
+ If you prefer to use fork/exec even on systems where posix_spawn() is
+ present, you can use the --disable-posix-spawn option to configure.
+ Implementation contributed by Aron Barath <baratharon@caesar.elte.hu>
+
+* Error messages printed when invoking non-existent commands have been cleaned
+ up and made consistent.
+
+* The previous limit of 63 jobs under -jN on MS-Windows is now
+ increased to 4095. That limit includes the subprocess started by
+ the $(shell) function.
+
+* A new option --no-silent has been added, that cancels the effect of the
+ -s/--silent/--quiet flag.
+
+* A new option -E has been added as a short alias for --eval.
+
+* All wildcard expansion within GNU make, including $(wildcard ...), will sort
+ the results. See https://savannah.gnu.org/bugs/index.php?52076
+
+* Interoperate with newer GNU libc and musl C runtime libraries.
+
+* Performance improvements provided by Paolo Bonzini <pbonzini@redhat.com>
+
+GNU make Developer News
+
+* Import the GNU standard bootstrap script to replace the hand-rolled
+ "make update" method for building code from a GNU make Git repository.
+
+* Rework the source distribution to move source files into the src/*
+ subdirectory. This aligns with modern best practices in GNU.
+
+* Replace local portability code with Gnulib content. Unfortunately due to a
+ problem with Gnulib support for getloadavg, this forces a requirement on
+ Automake 1.16 or above in order to build from Git. See README.git.
+
+\f
+Version 4.2.1 (10 Jun 2016)
+
+A complete list of bugs fixed in this version is available here:
+
+https://sv.gnu.org/bugs/index.php?group=make&report_id=111&fix_release_id=107&set=custom
+
+This release is a bug-fix release.
+
+\f
+Version 4.2 (22 May 2016)
+
+A complete list of bugs fixed in this version is available here:
+
+https://sv.gnu.org/bugs/index.php?group=make&report_id=111&fix_release_id=106&set=custom
+
+* New variable: $(.SHELLSTATUS) is set to the exit status of the last != or
+ $(shell ...) function invoked in this instance of make. This will be "0" if
+ successful or not "0" if not successful. The variable value is unset if no
+ != or $(shell ...) function has been invoked.
+
+* The $(file ...) function can now read from a file with $(file <FILE).
+ The function is expanded to the contents of the file. The contents are
+ expanded verbatim except that the final newline, if any, is stripped.
+
+* The makefile line numbers shown by GNU make now point directly to the
+ specific line in the recipe where the failure or warning occurred.
+ Sample changes suggested by Brian Vandenberg <phantall@gmail.com>
+
+* The interface to GNU make's "jobserver" is stable as documented in the
+ manual, for tools which may want to access it.
+
+ WARNING: Backward-incompatibility! The internal-only command line option
+ --jobserver-fds has been renamed for publishing, to --jobserver-auth.
+
+* The amount of parallelism can be determined by querying MAKEFLAGS, even when
+ the job server is enabled (previously MAKEFLAGS would always contain only
+ "-j", with no number, when job server was enabled).
+
+* VMS-specific changes:
+
+ * Perl test harness now works.
+
+ * Full support for converting Unix exit status codes to VMS exit status
+ codes. BACKWARD INCOMPATIBILITY Notice: On a child failure the VMS exit
+ code is now the encoded Unix exit status that Make usually generates, not
+ the VMS exit status of the child.
+
+\f
+Version 4.1 (05 Oct 2014)
+
+A complete list of bugs fixed in this version is available here:
+
+https://sv.gnu.org/bugs/index.php?group=make&report_id=111&fix_release_id=105&set=custom
+
+* New variables: $(MAKE_TERMOUT) and $(MAKE_TERMERR) are set to non-empty
+ values if stdout or stderr, respectively, are believed to be writing to a
+ terminal. These variables are exported by default.
+
+* Allow a no-text-argument form of the $(file ...) function. Without a text
+ argument nothing is written to the file: it is simply opened in the
+ requested mode, then closed again.
+
+* Change the fatal error for mixed explicit and implicit rules, that was
+ introduced in GNU make 3.82, to a non-fatal error. However, this syntax is
+ still deprecated and may return to being illegal in a future version of GNU
+ make. Makefiles that rely on this syntax should be fixed.
+ See https://savannah.gnu.org/bugs/?33034
+
+* VMS-specific changes:
+
+ * Support for library files added, including support for using the GNV ar
+ utility.
+
+ * Partial support for properly encoding Unix exit status codes into VMS exit
+ status codes.
+
+ WARNING: Backward-incompatibility! These are different exit status codes
+ than Make exited with in the past.
+
+ * Macros to hold the current make command are set up to translate the
+ argv[0] string to a VMS format path name and prefix it with "MCR " so that
+ the macro has a space in it.
+
+ WARNING: Backward-incompatibility! This may break complex makefiles that
+ do processing on those macros. This is unlikely because so much in that
+ area was not and is still not currently working on VMS, it is unlikely to
+ find such a complex makefile, so this is more likely to impact
+ construction of a future makefile.
+
+ * A command file is always used to run the commands for a recipe.
+
+ WARNING: Backward-incompatibility! Running the make self tests has
+ exposed that there are significant differences in behavior when running
+ with the command file mode. It is unknown if this will be noticed by most
+ existing VMS makefiles.
+\f
Version 4.0 (09 Oct 2013)
A complete list of bugs fixed in this version is available here:
-http://sv.gnu.org/bugs/index.php?group=make&report_id=111&fix_release_id=101&set=custom
+https://sv.gnu.org/bugs/index.php?group=make&report_id=111&fix_release_id=101&set=custom
* WARNING: Backward-incompatibility!
If .POSIX is specified, then make adheres to the POSIX backslash/newline
A complete list of bugs fixed in this version is available here:
-http://sv.gnu.org/bugs/index.php?group=make&report_id=111&fix_release_id=104&set=custom
+https://sv.gnu.org/bugs/index.php?group=make&report_id=111&fix_release_id=104&set=custom
* Compiling GNU make now requires a conforming ISO C 1989 compiler and
standard runtime library.
it explicitly.
* WARNING: Backward-incompatibility!
- In previous versions of make it was acceptable to list one or more explicit
- targets followed by one or more pattern targets in the same rule and it
- worked "as expected". However, this was not documented as acceptable and if
- you listed any explicit targets AFTER the pattern targets, the entire rule
- would be mis-parsed. This release removes this ability completely: make
- will generate an error message if you mix explicit and pattern targets in
- the same rule.
-
-* WARNING: Backward-incompatibility!
As a result of parser enhancements, three backward-compatibility issues
exist: first, a prerequisite containing an "=" cannot be escaped with a
backslash any longer. You must create a variable containing an "=" and
after the variable name, to allow for simple, conditional, or appending
multi-line variable assignment.
+* VMS-specific changes:
+
+ * Michael Gehre (at VISTEC-SEMI dot COM) supplied a fix for a problem with
+ timestamps of object modules in OLBs. The timestamps were not correctly
+ adjusted to GMT based time, if the local VMS time was using a daylight
+ saving algorithm and if daylight saving was switched off.
+
+ * John Eisenbraun (at HP dot COM) supplied fixes and and an enhancement to
+ append output redirection in action lines.
+
+ * Rework of ctrl+c and ctrl+y handling.
+
+ * Fix a problem with cached strings, which showed on case-insensitive file
+ systems.
+
+ * Build fixes for const-ified code in VMS specific sources.
+
+ * A note on appending the redirected output. With this change, a simple
+ mechanism is implemented to make ">>" work in action lines. In VMS
+ there is no simple feature like ">>" to have DCL command or program
+ output redirected and appended to a file. GNU make for VMS already
+ implements the redirection of output. If such a redirection is detected,
+ an ">" on the action line, GNU make creates a DCL command procedure to
+ execute the action and to redirect its output. Based on that, now ">>"
+ is also recognized and a similar but different command procedure is
+ created to implement the append. The main idea here is to create a
+ temporary file which collects the output and which is appended to the
+ wanted output file. Then the temporary file is deleted. This is all done
+ in the command procedure to keep changes in make small and simple. This
+ obviously has some limitations but it seems good enough compared with
+ the current ">" implementation. (And in my opinion, redirection is not
+ really what GNU make has to do.) With this approach, it may happen that
+ the temporary file is not yet appended and is left in SYS$SCRATCH.
+ The temporary file names look like "CMDxxxxx.". Any time the created
+ command procedure can not complete, this happens. Pressing Ctrl+Y to
+ abort make is one case. In case of Ctrl+Y the associated command
+ procedure is left in SYS$SCRATCH as well. Its name is CMDxxxxx.COM.
+
+ * Change in the Ctrl+Y handling. The CtrlY handler now uses $delprc to
+ delete all children. This way also actions with DCL commands will be
+ stopped. As before the CtrlY handler then sends SIGQUIT to itself,
+ which is handled in common code.
+
+ * Change in deleteing temporary command files. Temporary command files
+ are now deleted in the vms child termination handler. That deletes
+ them even if a Ctrl+C was pressed.
+
+ * The behavior of pressing Ctrl+C is not changed. It still has only an
+ effect, after the current action is terminated. If that doesn't happen
+ or takes too long, Ctrl+Y should be used instead.
+
\f
Version 3.81 (01 Apr 2006)
any prerequisite that does not exist, even though that prerequisite
might have caused the target to rebuild. Starting with the _next_
release of GNU make, '$?' will contain all prerequisites that caused
- the target to be considered out of date. See this Savannah bug:
- http://savannah.gnu.org/bugs/index.php?func=detailitem&item_id=16051
+ the target to be considered out of date.
+ See https://savannah.gnu.org/bugs/?16051
* WARNING: Backward-incompatibility!
GNU make now implements a generic "second expansion" feature on the
A complete list of bugs fixed in this version is available here:
- http://savannah.gnu.org/bugs/index.php?group=make&report_id=111&fix_release_id=103
+ https://savannah.gnu.org/bugs/index.php?group=make&report_id=111&fix_release_id=103
\f
Version 3.80 (03 Oct 2002)
* Updated to autoconf 2.54 and automake 1.7. Users should not be impacted.
+* VMS-specific changes:
+
+ * In default.c define variable ARCH as IA64 for VMS on Itanium systems.
+
+ * In makefile.vms avoid name collision for glob and globfree.
+
+ * This is the VMS port of GNU Make done by Hartmut.Becker@compaq.com.
+
+ It is based on the specific version 3.77k and on 3.78.1. 3.77k was done
+ by Klaus Kämpf <kkaempf@rmi.de>, the code was based on the VMS port of
+ GNU Make 3.60 by Mike Moretti.
+
+ It was ported on OpenVMS/Alpha V7.1, DECC V5.7-006. It was re-build and
+ tested on OpenVMS/Alpha V7.2, OpenVMS/VAX 7.1 and 5.5-2. Different
+ versions of DECC were used. VAXC was tried: it fails; but it doesn't
+ seem worth to get it working. There are still some PTRMISMATCH warnings
+ during the compile. Although perl is working on VMS the test scripts
+ don't work. The function $shell is still missing.
+
+ There is a known bug in some of the VMS CRTLs. It is in the shipped
+ versions of VMS V7.2 and V7.2-1 and in the currently (October 1999)
+ available ECOs for VMS V7.1 and newer versions. It is fixed in versions
+ shipped with newer VMS versions and all ECO kits after October 1999. It
+ only shows up during the daylight saving time period (DST): stat()
+ returns a modification time 1 hour ahead. This results in GNU make
+ warning messages. For a just created source you will see:
+
+ $ gmake x.exe
+ gmake.exe;1: *** Warning: File 'x.c' has modification time in the future
+ (940582863 > 940579269)
+ cc /obj=x.obj x.c
+ link x.obj /exe=x.exe
+ gmake.exe;1: *** Warning: Clock skew detected. Your build may be
+ incomplete.
+
+
A complete list of bugs fixed in this version is available here:
- http://savannah.gnu.org/bugs/index.php?group=make&report_id=111&fix_release_id=102
+ https://savannah.gnu.org/bugs/index.php?group=make&report_id=111&fix_release_id=102
\f
Version 3.79.1 (23 Jun 2000)
* Hartmut Becker provided many updates for the VMS port of GNU make.
See the README.VMS file for more details.
+
+* VMS-specific changes:
+
+ * Fix a problem with automatically remaking makefiles. GNU make uses an
+ execve to restart itself after a successful remake of the makefile. On
+ UNIX systems execve replaces the running program with a new one and
+ resets all signal handling to the default. On VMS execve creates a child
+ process, signal and exit handlers of the parent are still active, and,
+ unfortunately, corrupt the exit code from the child. Fix in job.c:
+ ignore SIGCHLD.
+
+ * Added some switches to reflect latest features of DECC. Modifications in
+ makefile.vms.
+
+ * Set some definitions to reflect latest features of DECC. Modifications in
+ config.h-vms (which is copied to config.h).
+
+ * Added extern strcmpi declaration to avoid 'implicitly declared' messages.
+ Modification in make.h.
+
+ * Default rule for C++, conditionals for gcc (GCC_IS_NATIVE) or DEC/Digital/
+ Compaq c/c++ compilers. Modifications in default.c.
+
+ * Usage of opendir() and friends, suppress file version. Modifications in
+ dir.c.
+
+ * Added VMS specific code to handle ctrl+c and ctrl+y to abort make.
+ Modifications in job.c.
+
+ * Added support to have case sensitive targets and dependencies but to
+ still use case blind file names. This is especially useful for Java
+ makefiles on VMS:
+
+ .SUFFIXES :
+ .SUFFIXES : .class .java
+ .java.class :
+ javac "$<
+ HelloWorld.class : HelloWorld.java
+
+ * A new macro WANT_CASE_SENSITIVE_TARGETS in config.h-vms was introduced.
+ It needs to be enabled to get this feature; default is disabled. The
+ macro HAVE_CASE_INSENSITIVE_FS must not be touched: it is still enabled.
+ Modifications in file.c and config.h-vms.
+
+ * Bootstrap make to start building make is still makefile.com, but make
+ needs to be re-made with a make to make a correct version: ignore all
+ possible warnings, delete all objects, rename make.exe to a different
+ name and run it.
+
+ * Made some minor modifications to the bootstrap build makefile.com.
\f
Version 3.78 (22 Sep 1999)
* Updates to the Windows 95/NT port from Rob Tulloh (see README.W32),
and to the DOS port from Eli Zaretski (see README.DOS).
+
+* VMS-specific changes:
+
+ * This is the VMS port of GNU Make.
+ It is based on the VMS port of GNU Make 3.60 by Mike Moretti.
+ This port was done by Klaus Kämpf <kkaempf@rmi.de>
+
+ * There is first-level support available from proGIS Software, Germany.
+ Visit their web-site at http://www.progis.de to get information
+ about other vms software and forthcoming updates to gnu make.
+
+ * /bin/sh style I/O redirection is supported. You can now write lines like
+ mcr sys$disk:[]program.exe < input.txt > output.txt &> error.txt
+
+ * Makefile variables are looked up in the current environment. You can set
+ symbols or logicals in DCL and evaluate them in the Makefile via
+ $(<name-of-symbol-or-logical>). Variables defined in the Makefile
+ override VMS symbols/logicals !
+
+ * Functions for file names are working now. See the GNU Make manual for
+ $(dir ...) and $(wildcard ...). Unix-style and VMS-style names are
+ supported as arguments.
+
+ * The default rules are set up for GNU C. Building an executable from a
+ single source file is as easy as 'make file.exe'.
+
+ * The variable $(ARCH) is predefined as ALPHA or VAX resp. Makefiles for
+ different VMS systems can now be written by checking $(ARCH) as in
+ ifeq ($(ARCH),ALPHA)
+ $(ECHO) "On the Alpha"
+ else
+ $(ECHO) "On the VAX"
+ endif
+
+ * Command lines of excessive length are correctly broken and written to a
+ batch file in sys$scratch for later execution. There's no limit to the
+ lengths of commands (and no need for .opt files :-) any more.
+
+ * Empty commands are handled correctly and don't end in a new DCL process.
\f
Version 3.76.1 (19 Sep 1997)
concerning this port to Eli Zaretskii <eliz@is.elta.co.il> or DJ
Delorie <dj@delorie.com>.
-* John W. Eaton has updated the VMS port to support libraries and VPATH.
-\f
+* VMS-specific changes:
+
+ * John W. Eaton has updated the VMS port to support libraries and VPATH.
+
+ * The cd command is supported if it's called as $(CD). This invokes
+ the 'builtin_cd' command which changes the directory.
+ Calling 'set def' doesn't do the trick, since a sub-shell is
+ spawned for this command, the directory is changed *in this sub-shell*
+ and the sub-shell ends.
+
+ * Libraries are not supported. They were in GNU Make 3.60 but somehow I
+ didn't care porting the code. If there is enough interest, I'll do it at
+ some later time.
+
+ * The variable $^ separates files with commas instead of spaces (It's the
+ natural thing to do for VMS).
+
+ * See defaults.c for VMS default suffixes and my definitions for default
+ rules and variables.
+
+ * The shell function is not implemented yet.
+
+ * Load average routines haven't been implemented for VMS yet.
+
+ * The default include directory for including other makefiles is
+ SYS$SYSROOT:[SYSLIB] (I don't remember why I didn't just use
+ SYS$LIBRARY: instead; maybe it wouldn't work that way).
+
+ * The default makefiles make looks for are: makefile.vms, gnumakefile,
+ makefile., and gnumakefile. .
+
+ * The stat() function and handling of time stamps in VMS is broken, so I
+ replaced it with a hack in vmsfunctions.c. I will provide a full rewrite
+ somewhere in the future. Be warned, the time resolution inside make is
+ less than what vms provides. This might be a problem on the faster Alphas.
+
+ * You can use a : in a filename only if you precede it with a backslash ('\').
+ E.g.- hobbes\:[bogas.files]
+
+ * Make ignores success, informational, or warning errors (-S-, -I-, or -W-).
+ But it will stop on -E- and -F- errors. (unless you do something
+ to override this in your makefile, or whatever).
+
+ * Remote stuff isn't implemented yet.
+
+ * Multiple line DCL commands, such as "if" statements, must be put inside
+ command files. You can run a command file by using \@.
+
Version 3.75 (27 Aug 1996)
* The directory messages printed by `-w' and implicitly in sub-makes,
* Rob Tulloh of Tivoli Systems has contributed a port to Windows NT or 95.
See README.W32 for details, and direct all Windows-related questions to
<rob_tulloh@tivoli.com>.
+
+* VMS-specific changes:
+
+ * Lots of default settings are adapted for VMS. See default.c.
+
+ * Long command lines are now converted to command files.
+
+ * Comma (',') as a separator is now allowed. See makefile.vms for an example.
\f
Version 3.73 (05 Apr 1995)
have reversed the change made in version 3.68 because it turned out to
cause a paradoxical situation in cases like:
- export variable = $(shell echo value)
+ export variable = $(shell echo value)
When Make attempted to put this variable in the environment for a
recipe, it would try expand the value by running the shell command
foo.a(b.o) bar.a(c.o) bar.a(d.o)'.
* A suffix rule `.X.a' now produces two pattern rules:
- (%.o): %.X # Previous versions produced only this.
- %.a: %.X # Now produces this as well, just like other suffixes.
+ (%.o): %.X # Previous versions produced only this.
+ %.a: %.X # Now produces this as well, just like other suffixes.
* The new flag `--warn-undefined-variables' says to issue a warning message
whenever Make expands a reference to an undefined variable.
no longer automatically put into the environments of the recipe lines that
Make runs. Instead, only variables specified on the command line or in
the environment are exported by default. To export others, use:
- export VARIABLE
+ export VARIABLE
or you can define variables with:
- export VARIABLE = VALUE
+ export VARIABLE = VALUE
or:
- export VARIABLE := VALUE
+ export VARIABLE := VALUE
You can use just:
- export
+ export
or:
- .EXPORT_ALL_VARIABLES:
+ .EXPORT_ALL_VARIABLES:
to get the old behavior. See the node `Variables/Recursion' in the manual
for a full description.
* A single `include' directive can now specify more than one makefile to
include, like this:
- include file1 file2
+ include file1 file2
You can also use shell file name patterns in an `include' directive:
- include *.mk
+ include *.mk
* The default directories to search for included makefiles, and for
libraries specified with `-lNAME', are now set by configuration.
* The `wildcard' variable expansion function now expands ~ and ~USER.
* Messages indicating failed recipe lines now contain the target name:
- make: *** [target] Error 1
+ make: *** [target] Error 1
* The `-p' output format has been changed somewhat to look more like
makefile rules and to give all information that Make has about files.
(Changes from versions 1 through 3.05 were never recorded. Sorry.)
\f
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
-Copyright (C) 1988-2013 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
+Copyright (C) 1988-2020 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
This file is part of GNU Make.
GNU Make is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the
projects / platform / upstream / make.git / blobdiff