Re: make "feature", source packages
J. H. M. Dassen writes ("make "feature", source packages"):
> GNU make has a feature that disables command echoing, which
> can create confusion. An example (from librl; see bug #1075):
> [...]
> The '@' characters inhibit command echoing, as described in the
> "Defining canned command sequences" section in the info files for make.
>
> Since this feature can be extremely confusing, both for the user compiling
> a package, and for the developer ("script" output doesn't show what
> goes wrong), I ask that this feature not be used in Debian packages.
I agree that this is usually a bad thing to do (though it's not just a
feature of GNU make).
However, we should not require package maintainers to make any
modifications to Makefiles that aren't absolutely required by what the
debian.rules file is supposed to do.
It's already hard enough with some packages to make a debian.rules
that works correctly.
Package maintainers are of course free encourage their upstream
maintainers to remove `@'s.
Ian.
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