On Fri, Apr 09, 2021 at 12:08:23AM +0200, Ævar Arnfjörð Bjarmason wrote: > > -config-list.h: > > +config-list.h: Documentation/*config.txt Documentation/config/*.txt > > $(QUIET_GEN)$(SHELL_PATH) ./generate-configlist.sh \ > > >$@+ && mv $@+ $@ > > > > command-list.h: generate-cmdlist.sh command-list.txt > > > > -command-list.h: $(wildcard Documentation/git*.txt) Documentation/*config.txt Documentation/config/*.txt > > +command-list.h: $(wildcard Documentation/git*.txt) > > $(QUIET_GEN)$(SHELL_PATH) ./generate-cmdlist.sh \ > > $(patsubst %,--exclude-program %,$(EXCLUDED_PROGRAMS)) \ > > command-list.txt >$@+ && mv $@+ $@ > > This change makes sense. I agree it looks like it's moving in the right direction, but I am slightly puzzled by the existing code. Why do we need to use $(wildcard) for git*.txt, but not for the others? > I have a not-yet-submitted patch series where I added some more > config/*/*.txt that wouldn't be caught by this rule, I'd updated the > Documentation/Makefile, but missed this part in the top-level Makefile. > > So a relation question: Does anyone actually prefer this state of > affairs of having a Makefile, Documentation/Makefile, t/Makefile > t/perf/Makefile and template/Makefile? > > It seems to me with ever-closer coupling between them that it's getting > to be more of a hassle to manage state between them than it would be to > just move them all into one big Makefile. Yes, I'm generally a fan of avoiding recursive make when we can. I think the caveats are: - it would be nice to continue to have stub Makefiles in sub-directories that trigger the main one (so "cd t && make" continues to work, for example). - we may need some cleanup of parts of the top-level Makefile which are triggered without dependencies (e.g., I think we unconditionally run some scripts to compute GIT_VERSION in the top-level; this is already a bit wasteful, but may get even more so as we add more rules from sub-directories). Mostly my argument against it (and why I haven't purused it) would be: it sounds like a lot of work and risk of regression, and the current system seems pretty fine in practice. -Peff