GNU make NEWS -*-indented-text-*-
History of user-visible changes.
- 05 Oct 2014
+ 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:
-http://sv.gnu.org/bugs/index.php?group=make&report_id=111&fix_release_id=105&set=custom
+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
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.
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 $delprc to
+ delete all children. This way also actions with DCL commands will be
+ stopped. As before the CtrlY handler then sends SIGQUIT to itself,
+ which is handled in common code.
+
+ * Change in deleteing temporary command files. Temporary command files
+ are now deleted in the vms child termination handler. That deletes
+ them even if a Ctrl+C was pressed.
+
+ * The behavior of pressing Ctrl+C is not changed. It still has only an
+ effect, after the current action is terminated. If that doesn't happen
+ or takes too long, Ctrl+Y should be used instead.
+
\f
Version 3.81 (01 Apr 2006)
might have caused the target to rebuild. Starting with the _next_
release of GNU make, '$?' will contain all prerequisites that caused
the target to be considered out of date.
- See http://savannah.gnu.org/bugs/?16051
+ 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)
(Changes from versions 1 through 3.05 were never recorded. Sorry.)
\f
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
-Copyright (C) 1988-2014 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