1GNU make NEWS -*-indented-text-*- 2 History of user-visible changes. 3 28 July 2010 4 5See the end of this file for copyrights and conditions. 6 7All changes mentioned here are more fully described in the GNU make 8manual, which is contained in this distribution as the file doc/make.texi. 9See the README file and the GNU make manual for instructions for 10reporting bugs. 11 12Version 3.82 13 14A complete list of bugs fixed in this version is available here: 15 16http://sv.gnu.org/bugs/index.php?group=make&report_id=111&fix_release_id=104&set=custom 17 18* Compiling GNU make now requires a conforming ISO C 1989 compiler and 19 standard runtime library. 20 21* WARNING: Future backward-incompatibility! 22 Wildcards are not documented as returning sorted values, but up to and 23 including this release the results have been sorted and some makefiles are 24 apparently depending on that. In the next release of GNU make, for 25 performance reasons, we may remove that sorting. If your makefiles 26 require sorted results from wildcard expansions, use the $(sort ...) 27 function to request it explicitly. 28 29* WARNING: Backward-incompatibility! 30 The POSIX standard for make was changed in the 2008 version in a 31 fundamentally incompatible way: make is required to invoke the shell as if 32 the '-e' flag were provided. Because this would break many makefiles that 33 have been written to conform to the original text of the standard, the 34 default behavior of GNU make remains to invoke the shell with simply '-c'. 35 However, any makefile specifying the .POSIX special target will follow the 36 new POSIX standard and pass '-e' to the shell. See also .SHELLFLAGS 37 below. 38 39* WARNING: Backward-incompatibility! 40 The '$?' variable now contains all prerequisites that caused the target to 41 be considered out of date, even if they do not exist (previously only 42 existing targets were provided in $?). 43 44* WARNING: Backward-incompatibility! 45 As a result of parser enhancements, three backward-compatibility issues 46 exist: first, a prerequisite containing an "=" cannot be escaped with a 47 backslash any longer. You must create a variable containing an "=" and 48 use that variable in the prerequisite. Second, variable names can no 49 longer contain whitespace, unless you put the whitespace in a variable and 50 use the variable. Third, in previous versions of make it was sometimes 51 not flagged as an error for explicit and pattern targets to appear in the 52 same rule. Now this is always reported as an error. 53 54* WARNING: Backward-incompatibility! 55 The pattern-specific variables and pattern rules are now applied in the 56 shortest stem first order instead of the definition order (variables 57 and rules with the same stem length are still applied in the definition 58 order). This produces the usually-desired behavior where more specific 59 patterns are preferred. To detect this feature search for 'shortest-stem' 60 in the .FEATURES special variable. 61 62* WARNING: Backward-incompatibility! 63 The library search behavior has changed to be compatible with the standard 64 linker behavior. Prior to this version for prerequisites specified using 65 the -lfoo syntax make first searched for libfoo.so in the current 66 directory, vpath directories, and system directories. If that didn't yield 67 a match, make then searched for libfoo.a in these directories. Starting 68 with this version make searches first for libfoo.so and then for libfoo.a 69 in each of these directories in order. 70 71* New command line option: --eval=STRING causes STRING to be evaluated as 72 makefile syntax (akin to using the $(eval ...) function). The evaluation 73 is performed after all default rules and variables are defined, but before 74 any makefiles are read. 75 76* New special variable: .RECIPEPREFIX allows you to reset the recipe 77 introduction character from the default (TAB) to something else. The 78 first character of this variable value is the new recipe introduction 79 character. If the variable is set to the empty string, TAB is used again. 80 It can be set and reset at will; recipes will use the value active when 81 they were first parsed. To detect this feature check the value of 82 $(.RECIPEPREFIX). 83 84* New special variable: .SHELLFLAGS allows you to change the options passed 85 to the shell when it invokes recipes. By default the value will be "-c" 86 (or "-ec" if .POSIX is set). 87 88* New special target: .ONESHELL instructs make to invoke a single instance 89 of the shell and provide it with the entire recipe, regardless of how many 90 lines it contains. As a special feature to allow more straightforward 91 conversion of makefiles to use .ONESHELL, any recipe line control 92 characters ('@', '+', or '-') will be removed from the second and 93 subsequent recipe lines. This happens _only_ if the SHELL value is deemed 94 to be a standard POSIX-style shell. If not, then no interior line control 95 characters are removed (as they may be part of the scripting language used 96 with the alternate SHELL). 97 98* New variable modifier 'private': prefixing a variable assignment with the 99 modifier 'private' suppresses inheritance of that variable by 100 prerequisites. This is most useful for target- and pattern-specific 101 variables. 102 103* New make directive: 'undefine' allows you to undefine a variable so that 104 it appears as if it was never set. Both $(flavor) and $(origin) functions 105 will return 'undefined' for such a variable. To detect this feature search 106 for 'undefine' in the .FEATURES special variable. 107 108* The parser for variable assignments has been enhanced to allow multiple 109 modifiers ('export', 'override', 'private') on the same line as variables, 110 including define/endef variables, and in any order. Also, it is possible 111 to create variables and targets named as these modifiers. 112 113* The 'define' make directive now allows a variable assignment operator 114 after the variable name, to allow for simple, conditional, or appending 115 multi-line variable assignment. 116 117 118Version 3.81 119 120* GNU make is ported to OS/2. 121 122* GNU make is ported to MinGW. The MinGW build is only supported by 123 the build_w32.bat batch file; see the file README.W32 for more 124 details. 125 126* WARNING: Future backward-incompatibility! 127 Up to and including this release, the '$?' variable does not contain 128 any prerequisite that does not exist, even though that prerequisite 129 might have caused the target to rebuild. Starting with the _next_ 130 release of GNU make, '$?' will contain all prerequisites that caused 131 the target to be considered out of date. See this Savannah bug: 132 http://savannah.gnu.org/bugs/index.php?func=detailitem&item_id=16051 133 134* WARNING: Backward-incompatibility! 135 GNU make now implements a generic "second expansion" feature on the 136 prerequisites of both explicit and implicit (pattern) rules. In order 137 to enable this feature, the special target '.SECONDEXPANSION' must be 138 defined before the first target which takes advantage of it. If this 139 feature is enabled then after all rules have been parsed the 140 prerequisites are expanded again, this time with all the automatic 141 variables in scope. This means that in addition to using standard 142 SysV $$@ in prerequisites lists, you can also use complex functions 143 such as $$(notdir $$@) etc. This behavior applies to implicit rules, 144 as well, where the second expansion occurs when the rule is matched. 145 However, this means that when '.SECONDEXPANSION' is enabled you must 146 double-quote any "$" in your filenames; instead of "foo: boo$$bar" you 147 now must write "foo: foo$$$$bar". Note that the SysV $$@ etc. feature, 148 which used to be available by default, is now ONLY available when the 149 .SECONDEXPANSION target is defined. If your makefiles take advantage 150 of this SysV feature you will need to update them. 151 152* WARNING: Backward-incompatibility! 153 In order to comply with POSIX, the way in which GNU make processes 154 backslash-newline sequences in recipes has changed. If your makefiles 155 use backslash-newline sequences inside of single-quoted strings in 156 recipes you will be impacted by this change. See the GNU make manual 157 subsection "Splitting Recipe Lines" (node "Splitting Lines"), in 158 section "Recipe Syntax", chapter "Writing Recipe in Rules", for 159 details. 160 161* WARNING: Backward-incompatibility! 162 Some previous versions of GNU make had a bug where "#" in a function 163 invocation such as $(shell ...) was treated as a make comment. A 164 workaround was to escape these with backslashes. This bug has been 165 fixed: if your makefile uses "\#" in a function invocation the 166 backslash is now preserved, so you'll need to remove it. 167 168* New command line option: -L (--check-symlink-times). On systems that 169 support symbolic links, if this option is given then GNU make will 170 use the most recent modification time of any symbolic links that are 171 used to resolve target files. The default behavior remains as it 172 always has: use the modification time of the actual target file only. 173 174* The "else" conditional line can now be followed by any other valid 175 conditional on the same line: this does not increase the depth of the 176 conditional nesting, so only one "endif" is required to close the 177 conditional. 178 179* All pattern-specific variables that match a given target are now used 180 (previously only the first match was used). 181 182* Target-specific variables can be marked as exportable using the 183 "export" keyword. 184 185* In a recursive $(call ...) context, any extra arguments from the outer 186 call are now masked in the context of the inner call. 187 188* Implemented a solution for the "thundering herd" problem with "-j -l". 189 This version of GNU make uses an algorithm suggested by Thomas Riedl 190 <thomas.riedl@siemens.com> to track the number of jobs started in the 191 last second and artificially adjust GNU make's view of the system's 192 load average accordingly. 193 194* New special variables available in this release: 195 - .INCLUDE_DIRS: Expands to a list of directories that make searches 196 for included makefiles. 197 - .FEATURES: Contains a list of special features available in this 198 version of GNU make. 199 - .DEFAULT_GOAL: Set the name of the default goal make will 200 use if no goals are provided on the command line. 201 - MAKE_RESTARTS: If set, then this is the number of times this 202 instance of make has been restarted (see "How Makefiles Are Remade" 203 in the manual). 204 - New automatic variable: $| (added in 3.80, actually): contains all 205 the order-only prerequisites defined for the target. 206 207* New functions available in this release: 208 - $(lastword ...) returns the last word in the list. This gives 209 identical results as $(word $(words ...) ...), but is much faster. 210 - $(abspath ...) returns the absolute path (all "." and ".." 211 directories resolved, and any duplicate "/" characters removed) for 212 each path provided. 213 - $(realpath ...) returns the canonical pathname for each path 214 provided. The canonical pathname is the absolute pathname, with 215 all symbolic links resolved as well. 216 - $(info ...) prints its arguments to stdout. No makefile name or 217 line number info, etc. is printed. 218 - $(flavor ...) returns the flavor of a variable. 219 - $(or ...) provides a short-circuiting OR conditional: each argument 220 is expanded. The first true (non-empty) argument is returned; no 221 further arguments are expanded. Expands to empty if there are no 222 true arguments. 223 - $(and ...) provides a short-circuiting AND conditional: each 224 argument is expanded. The first false (empty) argument is 225 returned; no further arguments are expanded. Expands to the last 226 argument if all arguments are true. 227 228* Changes made for POSIX compatibility: 229 - Only touch targets (under -t) if they have a recipe. 230 - Setting the SHELL make variable does NOT change the value of the 231 SHELL environment variable given to programs invoked by make. As 232 an enhancement to POSIX, if you export the make variable SHELL then 233 it will be set in the environment, just as before. 234 235* On MS Windows systems, explicitly setting SHELL to a pathname ending 236 in "cmd" or "cmd.exe" (case-insensitive) will force GNU make to use 237 the DOS command interpreter in batch mode even if a UNIX-like shell 238 could be found on the system. 239 240* On VMS there is now support for case-sensitive filesystems such as ODS5. 241 See the readme.vms file for information. 242 243* Parallel builds (-jN) no longer require a working Bourne shell on 244 Windows platforms. They work even with the stock Windows shells, such 245 as cmd.exe and command.com. 246 247* Updated to autoconf 2.59, automake 1.9.5, and gettext 0.14.1. Users 248 should not be impacted. 249 250* New translations for Swedish, Chinese (simplified), Ukrainian, 251 Belarusian, Finnish, Kinyarwandan, and Irish. Many updated 252 translations. 253 254A complete list of bugs fixed in this version is available here: 255 256 http://savannah.gnu.org/bugs/index.php?group=make&report_id=111&fix_release_id=103 257 258 259Version 3.80 260 261* A new feature exists: order-only prerequisites. These prerequisites 262 affect the order in which targets are built, but they do not impact 263 the rebuild/no-rebuild decision of their dependents. That is to say, 264 they allow you to require target B be built before target A, without 265 requiring that target A will always be rebuilt if target B is updated. 266 Patch for this feature provided by Greg McGary <greg@mcgary.org>. 267 268* For compatibility with SysV make, GNU make now supports the peculiar 269 syntax $$@, $$(@D), and $$(@F) in the prerequisites list of a rule. 270 This syntax is only valid within explicit and static pattern rules: it 271 cannot be used in implicit (suffix or pattern) rules. Edouard G. Parmelan 272 <egp@free.fr> provided a patch implementing this feature; however, I 273 decided to implement it in a different way. 274 275* The argument to the "ifdef" conditional is now expanded before it's 276 tested, so it can be a constructed variable name. 277 278 Similarly, the arguments to "export" (when not used in a variable 279 definition context) and "unexport" are also now expanded. 280 281* A new function is defined: $(value ...). The argument to this 282 function is the _name_ of a variable. The result of the function is 283 the value of the variable, without having been expanded. 284 285* A new function is defined: $(eval ...). The arguments to this 286 function should expand to makefile commands, which will then be 287 evaluated as if they had appeared in the makefile. In combination 288 with define/endef multiline variable definitions this is an extremely 289 powerful capability. The $(value ...) function is also sometimes 290 useful here. 291 292* A new built-in variable is defined, $(MAKEFILE_LIST). It contains a 293 list of each makefile GNU make has read, or started to read, in the 294 order in which they were encountered. So, the last filename in the 295 list when a makefile is just being read (before any includes) is the 296 name of the current makefile. 297 298* A new built-in variable is defined: $(.VARIABLES). When it is 299 expanded it returns a complete list of variable names defined by all 300 makefiles at that moment. 301 302* A new command line option is defined, -B or --always-make. If 303 specified GNU make will consider all targets out-of-date even if they 304 would otherwise not be. 305 306* The arguments to $(call ...) functions were being stored in $1, $2, 307 etc. as recursive variables, even though they are fully expanded 308 before assignment. This means that escaped dollar signs ($$ etc.) 309 were not behaving properly. Now the arguments are stored as simple 310 variables. This may mean that if you added extra escaping to your 311 $(call ...) function arguments you will need to undo it now. 312 313* The variable invoked by $(call ...) can now be recursive: unlike other 314 variables it can reference itself and this will not produce an error 315 when it is used as the first argument to $(call ...) (but only then). 316 317* New pseudo-target .LOW_RESOLUTION_TIME, superseding the configure 318 option --disable-nsec-timestamps. You might need this if your build 319 process depends on tools like "cp -p" preserving time stamps, since 320 "cp -p" (right now) doesn't preserve the subsecond portion of a time 321 stamp. 322 323* Updated translations for French, Galician, German, Japanese, Korean, 324 and Russian. New translations for Croatian, Danish, Hebrew, and 325 Turkish. 326 327* Updated internationalization support to Gettext 0.11.5. 328 GNU make now uses Gettext's "external" feature, and does not include 329 any internationalization code itself. Configure will search your 330 system for an existing implementation of GNU Gettext (only GNU Gettext 331 is acceptable) and use it if it exists. If not, NLS will be disabled. 332 See ABOUT-NLS for more information. 333 334* Updated to autoconf 2.54 and automake 1.7. Users should not be impacted. 335 336A complete list of bugs fixed in this version is available here: 337 338 http://savannah.gnu.org/bugs/index.php?group=make&report_id=111&fix_release_id=102 339 340 341Version 3.79.1 342 343* .SECONDARY with no prerequisites now prevents any target from being 344 removed because make thinks it's an intermediate file, not just those 345 listed in the makefile. 346 347* New configure option --disable-nsec-timestamps, but this was 348 superseded in later versions by the .LOW_RESOLUTION_TIME pseudo-target. 349 350Version 3.79 351 352* GNU make optionally supports internationalization and locales via the 353 GNU gettext (or local gettext if suitable) package. See the ABOUT-NLS 354 file for more information on configuring GNU make for NLS. 355 356* Previously, GNU make quoted variables such as MAKEFLAGS and 357 MAKEOVERRIDES for proper parsing by the shell. This allowed them to 358 be used within make build scripts. However, using them there is not 359 proper behavior: they are meant to be passed to subshells via the 360 environment. Unfortunately the values were not quoted properly to be 361 passed through the environment. This meant that make didn't properly 362 pass some types of command line values to submakes. 363 364 With this version we change that behavior: now these variables are 365 quoted properly for passing through the environment, which is the 366 correct way to do it. If you previously used these variables 367 explicitly within a make rule you may need to re-examine your use for 368 correctness given this change. 369 370* A new pseudo-target .NOTPARALLEL is available. If defined, the 371 current makefile is run serially regardless of the value of -j. 372 However, submakes are still eligible for parallel execution. 373 374* The --debug option has changed: it now allows optional flags 375 controlling the amount and type of debugging output. By default only 376 a minimal amount information is generated, displaying the names of 377 "normal" targets (not makefiles) that were deemed out of date and in 378 need of being rebuilt. 379 380 Note that the -d option behaves as before: it takes no arguments and 381 all debugging information is generated. 382 383* The `-p' (print database) output now includes filename and linenumber 384 information for variable definitions, to aid debugging. 385 386* The wordlist function no longer reverses its arguments if the "start" 387 value is greater than the "end" value. If that's true, nothing is 388 returned. 389 390* Hartmut Becker provided many updates for the VMS port of GNU make. 391 See the readme.vms file for more details. 392 393Version 3.78 394 395* Two new functions, $(error ...) and $(warning ...) are available. The 396 former will cause make to fail and exit immediately upon expansion of 397 the function, with the text provided as the error message. The latter 398 causes the text provided to be printed as a warning message, but make 399 proceeds normally. 400 401* A new function $(call ...) is available. This allows users to create 402 their own parameterized macros and invoke them later. Original 403 implementation of this function was provided by Han-Wen Nienhuys 404 <hanwen@cs.uu.nl>. 405 406* A new function $(if ...) is available. It provides if-then-else 407 capabilities in a builtin function. Original implementation of this 408 function was provided by Han-Wen Nienhuys <hanwen@cs.uu.nl>. 409 410* Make defines a new variable, .LIBPATTERNS. This variable controls how 411 library dependency expansion (dependencies like ``-lfoo'') is performed. 412 413* Make accepts CRLF sequences as well as traditional LF, for 414 compatibility with makefiles created on other operating systems. 415 416* Make accepts a new option: -R, or --no-builtin-variables. This option 417 disables the definition of the rule-specific builtin variables (CC, 418 LD, AR, etc.). Specifying this option forces -r (--no-builtin-rules) 419 as well. 420 421* A "job server" feature, suggested by Howard Chu <hyc@highlandsun.com>. 422 423 On systems that support POSIX pipe(2) semantics, GNU make can now pass 424 -jN options to submakes rather than forcing them all to use -j1. The 425 top make and all its sub-make processes use a pipe to communicate with 426 each other to ensure that no more than N jobs are started across all 427 makes. To get the old behavior of -j back, you can configure make 428 with the --disable-job-server option. 429 430* The confusing term "dependency" has been replaced by the more accurate 431 and standard term "prerequisite", both in the manual and in all GNU make 432 output. 433 434* GNU make supports the "big archive" library format introduced in AIX 4.3. 435 436* GNU make supports large files on AIX, HP-UX, and IRIX. These changes 437 were provided by Paul Eggert <eggert@twinsun.com>. (Large file 438 support for Solaris and Linux was introduced in 3.77, but the 439 configuration had issues: these have also been resolved). 440 441* The Windows 95/98/NT (W32) version of GNU make now has native support 442 for the Cygnus Cygwin release B20.1 shell (bash). 443 444* The GNU make regression test suite, long available separately "under 445 the table", has been integrated into the release. You can invoke it 446 by running "make check" in the distribution. Note that it requires 447 Perl (either Perl 4 or Perl 5) to run. 448 449Version 3.77 450 451* Implement BSD make's "?=" variable assignment operator. The variable 452 is assigned the specified value only if that variable is not already 453 defined. 454 455* Make defines a new variable, "CURDIR", to contain the current working 456 directory (after the -C option, if any, has been processed). 457 Modifying this variable has no effect on the operation of make. 458 459* Make defines a new default RCS rule, for new-style master file 460 storage: ``% :: RCS/%'' (note no ``,v'' suffix). 461 462 Make defines new default rules for DOS-style C++ file naming 463 conventions, with ``.cpp'' suffixes. All the same rules as for 464 ``.cc'' and ``.C'' suffixes are provided, along with LINK.cpp and 465 COMPILE.cpp macros (which default to the same value as LINK.cc and 466 COMPILE.cc). Note CPPFLAGS is still C preprocessor flags! You should 467 use CXXFLAGS to change C++ compiler flags. 468 469* A new feature, "target-specific variable values", has been added. 470 This is a large change so please see the appropriate sections of the 471 manual for full details. Briefly, syntax like this: 472 473 TARGET: VARIABLE = VALUE 474 475 defines VARIABLE as VALUE within the context of TARGET. This is 476 similar to SunOS make's "TARGET := VARIABLE = VALUE" feature. Note 477 that the assignment may be of any type, not just recursive, and that 478 the override keyword is available. 479 480 COMPATIBILITY: This new syntax means that if you have any rules where 481 the first or second dependency has an equal sign (=) in its name, 482 you'll have to escape them with a backslash: "foo : bar\=baz". 483 Further, if you have any dependencies which already contain "\=", 484 you'll have to escape both of them: "foo : bar\\\=baz". 485 486* A new appendix listing the most common error and warning messages 487 generated by GNU make, with some explanation, has been added to the 488 GNU make User's Manual. 489 490* Updates to the GNU make Customs library support (see README.customs). 491 492* Updates to the Windows 95/NT port from Rob Tulloh (see README.W32), 493 and to the DOS port from Eli Zaretski (see README.DOS). 494 495Version 3.76.1 496 497* Small (but serious) bug fix. Quick rollout to get into the GNU source CD. 498 499Version 3.76 500 501* GNU make now uses automake to control Makefile.in generation. This 502 should make it more consistent with the GNU standards. 503 504* VPATH functionality has been changed to incorporate the VPATH+ patch, 505 previously maintained by Paul Smith <psmith@baynetworks.com>. See the 506 manual. 507 508* Make defines a new variable, `MAKECMDGOALS', to contain the goals that 509 were specified on the command line, if any. Modifying this variable 510 has no effect on the operation of make. 511 512* A new function, `$(wordlist S,E,TEXT)', is available: it returns a 513 list of words from number S to number E (inclusive) of TEXT. 514 515* Instead of an error, detection of future modification times gives a 516 warning and continues. The warning is repeated just before GNU make 517 exits, so it is less likely to be lost. 518 519* Fix the $(basename) and $(suffix) functions so they only operate on 520 the last filename, not the entire string: 521 522 Command Old Result New Result 523 ------- ---------- ---------- 524 $(basename a.b) a a 525 $(basename a.b/c) a a.b/c 526 $(suffix a.b) b b 527 $(suffix a.b/c) b/c <empty> 528 529* The $(strip) function now removes newlines as well as TABs and spaces. 530 531* The $(shell) function now changes CRLF (\r\n) pairs to a space as well 532 as newlines (\n). 533 534* Updates to the Windows 95/NT port from Rob Tulloh (see README.W32). 535 536* Eli Zaretskii has updated the port to 32-bit protected mode on MSDOS 537 and MS-Windows, building with the DJGPP v2 port of GNU C/C++ compiler 538 and utilities. See README.DOS for details, and direct all questions 539 concerning this port to Eli Zaretskii <eliz@is.elta.co.il> or DJ 540 Delorie <dj@delorie.com>. 541 542* John W. Eaton has updated the VMS port to support libraries and VPATH. 543 544Version 3.75 545 546* The directory messages printed by `-w' and implicitly in sub-makes, 547 are now omitted if Make runs no commands and has no other messages to print. 548 549* Make now detects files that for whatever reason have modification times 550 in the future and gives an error. Files with such impossible timestamps 551 can result from unsynchronized clocks, or archived distributions 552 containing bogus timestamps; they confuse Make's dependency engine 553 thoroughly. 554 555* The new directive `sinclude' is now recognized as another name for 556 `-include', for compatibility with some other Makes. 557 558* Aaron Digulla has contributed a port to AmigaDOS. See README.Amiga for 559 details, and direct all Amiga-related questions to <digulla@fh-konstanz.de>. 560 561* Rob Tulloh of Tivoli Systems has contributed a port to Windows NT or 95. 562 See README.W32 for details, and direct all Windows-related questions to 563 <rob_tulloh@tivoli.com>. 564 565Version 3.73 566 567* Converted to use Autoconf version 2, so `configure' has some new options. 568 See INSTALL for details. 569 570* You can now send a SIGUSR1 signal to Make to toggle printing of debugging 571 output enabled by -d, at any time during the run. 572 573Version 3.72 574 575* DJ Delorie has ported Make to MS-DOS using the GO32 extender. 576 He is maintaining the DOS port, not the GNU Make maintainer; 577 please direct bugs and questions for DOS to <djgpp@sun.soe.clarkson.edu>. 578 MS-DOS binaries are available for FTP from ftp.simtel.net in 579 /pub/simtelnet/gnu/djgpp/. 580 581* The `MAKEFLAGS' variable (in the environment or in a makefile) can now 582 contain variable definitions itself; these are treated just like 583 command line variable definitions. Make will automatically insert any 584 variable definitions from the environment value of `MAKEFLAGS' or from 585 the command line, into the `MAKEFLAGS' value exported to children. The 586 `MAKEOVERRIDES' variable previously included in the value of `$(MAKE)' 587 for sub-makes is now included in `MAKEFLAGS' instead. As before, you can 588 reset `MAKEOVERRIDES' in your makefile to avoid putting all the variables 589 in the environment when its size is limited. 590 591* If `.DELETE_ON_ERROR' appears as a target, Make will delete the target of 592 a rule if it has changed when its recipe exits with a nonzero status, 593 just as when the recipe gets a signal. 594 595* The automatic variable `$+' is new. It lists all the dependencies like 596 `$^', but preserves duplicates listed in the makefile. This is useful 597 for linking rules, where library files sometimes need to be listed twice 598 in the link order. 599 600* You can now specify the `.IGNORE' and `.SILENT' special targets with 601 dependencies to limit their effects to those files. If a file appears as 602 a dependency of `.IGNORE', then errors will be ignored while running the 603 recipe to update that file. Likewise if a file appears as a dependency 604 of `.SILENT', then the recipe to update that file will not be printed 605 before it is run. (This change was made to conform to POSIX.2.) 606 607Version 3.71 608 609* The automatic variables `$(@D)', `$(%D)', `$(*D)', `$(<D)', `$(?D)', and 610 `$(^D)' now omit the trailing slash from the directory name. (This change 611 was made to comply with POSIX.2.) 612 613* The source distribution now includes the Info files for the Make manual. 614 There is no longer a separate distribution containing Info and DVI files. 615 616* You can now set the variables `binprefix' and/or `manprefix' in 617 Makefile.in (or on the command line when installing) to install GNU make 618 under a name other than `make' (i.e., ``make binprefix=g install'' 619 installs GNU make as `gmake'). 620 621* The built-in Texinfo rules use the new variables `TEXI2DVI_FLAGS' for 622 flags to the `texi2dvi' script, and `MAKEINFO_FLAGS' for flags to the 623 Makeinfo program. 624 625* The exit status of Make when it runs into errors is now 2 instead of 1. 626 The exit status is 1 only when using -q and some target is not up to date. 627 (This change was made to comply with POSIX.2.) 628 629Version 3.70 630 631* It is no longer a fatal error to have a NUL character in a makefile. 632 You should never put a NUL in a makefile because it can have strange 633 results, but otherwise empty lines full of NULs (such as produced by 634 the `xmkmf' program) will always work fine. 635 636* The error messages for nonexistent included makefiles now refer to the 637 makefile name and line number where the `include' appeared, so Emacs's 638 C-x ` command takes you there (in case it's a typo you need to fix). 639 640Version 3.69 641 642* Implicit rule search for archive member references is now done in the 643 opposite order from previous versions: the whole target name `LIB(MEM)' 644 first, and just the member name and parentheses `(MEM)' second. 645 646* Make now gives an error for an unterminated variable or function reference. 647 For example, `$(foo' with no matching `)' or `${bar' with no matching `}'. 648 649* The new default variable `MAKE_VERSION' gives the version number of 650 Make, and a string describing the remote job support compiled in (if any). 651 Thus the value (in this release) is something like `3.69' or `3.69-Customs'. 652 653* Commands in an invocation of the `shell' function are no longer run 654 with a modified environment like recipes are. As in versions before 655 3.68, they now run with the environment that `make' started with. We 656 have reversed the change made in version 3.68 because it turned out to 657 cause a paradoxical situation in cases like: 658 659 export variable = $(shell echo value) 660 661 When Make attempted to put this variable in the environment for a 662 recipe, it would try expand the value by running the shell command 663 `echo value'. In version 3.68, because it constructed an environment 664 for that shell command in the same way, Make would begin to go into an 665 infinite loop and then get a fatal error when it detected the loop. 666 667* The recipe given for `.DEFAULT' is now used for phony targets with no 668 recipe. 669 670Version 3.68 671 672* You can list several archive member names inside parenthesis: 673 `lib(mem1 mem2 mem3)' is equivalent to `lib(mem1) lib(mem2) lib(mem3)'. 674 675* You can use wildcards inside archive member references. For example, 676 `lib(*.o)' expands to all existing members of `lib' whose names end in 677 `.o' (e.g. `lib(a.o) lib(b.o)'); `*.a(*.o)' expands to all such members 678 of all existing files whose names end in `.a' (e.g. `foo.a(a.o) 679 foo.a(b.o) bar.a(c.o) bar.a(d.o)'. 680 681* A suffix rule `.X.a' now produces two pattern rules: 682 (%.o): %.X # Previous versions produced only this. 683 %.a: %.X # Now produces this as well, just like other suffixes. 684 685* The new flag `--warn-undefined-variables' says to issue a warning message 686 whenever Make expands a reference to an undefined variable. 687 688* The new `-include' directive is just like `include' except that there is 689 no error (not even a warning) for a nonexistent makefile. 690 691* Commands in an invocation of the `shell' function are now run with a 692 modified environment like recipes are, so you can use `export' et al 693 to set up variables for them. They used to run with the environment 694 that `make' started with. 695 696Version 3.66 697 698* `make --version' (or `make -v') now exits immediately after printing 699 the version number. 700 701Version 3.65 702 703* Make now supports long-named members in `ar' archive files. 704 705Version 3.64 706 707* Make now supports the `+=' syntax for a variable definition which appends 708 to the variable's previous value. See the section `Appending More Text 709 to Variables' in the manual for full details. 710 711* The new option `--no-print-directory' inhibits the `-w' or 712 `--print-directory' feature. Make turns on `--print-directory' 713 automatically if you use `-C' or `--directory', and in sub-makes; some 714 users have found this behavior undesirable. 715 716* The built-in implicit rules now support the alternative extension 717 `.txinfo' for Texinfo files, just like `.texinfo' and `.texi'. 718 719Version 3.63 720 721* Make now uses a standard GNU `configure' script. See the new file 722 INSTALL for the new (and much simpler) installation procedure. 723 724* There is now a shell script to build Make the first time, if you have no 725 other `make' program. `build.sh' is created by `configure'; see README. 726 727* GNU Make now completely conforms to the POSIX.2 specification for `make'. 728 729* Elements of the `$^' and `$?' automatic variables that are archive 730 member references now list only the member name, as in Unix and POSIX.2. 731 732* You should no longer ever need to specify the `-w' switch, which prints 733 the current directory before and after Make runs. The `-C' switch to 734 change directory, and recursive use of Make, now set `-w' automatically. 735 736* Multiple double-colon rules for the same target will no longer have their 737 recipes run simultaneously under -j, as this could result in the two 738 recipes trying to change the file at the same time and interfering with 739 one another. 740 741* The `SHELL' variable is now never taken from the environment. 742 Each makefile that wants a shell other than the default (/bin/sh) must 743 set SHELL itself. SHELL is always exported to child processes. 744 This change was made for compatibility with POSIX.2. 745 746* Make now accepts long options. There is now an informative usage message 747 that tells you what all the options are and what they do. Try `make --help'. 748 749* There are two new directives: `export' and `unexport'. All variables are 750 no longer automatically put into the environments of the recipe lines that 751 Make runs. Instead, only variables specified on the command line or in 752 the environment are exported by default. To export others, use: 753 export VARIABLE 754 or you can define variables with: 755 export VARIABLE = VALUE 756 or: 757 export VARIABLE := VALUE 758 You can use just: 759 export 760 or: 761 .EXPORT_ALL_VARIABLES: 762 to get the old behavior. See the node `Variables/Recursion' in the manual 763 for a full description. 764 765* The recipe from the `.DEFAULT' special target is only applied to 766 targets which have no rules at all, not all targets with no recipe. 767 This change was made for compatibility with Unix make. 768 769* All fatal error messages now contain `***', so they are easy to find in 770 compilation logs. 771 772* Dependency file names like `-lNAME' are now replaced with the actual file 773 name found, as with files found by normal directory search (VPATH). 774 The library file `libNAME.a' may now be found in the current directory, 775 which is checked before VPATH; the standard set of directories (/lib, 776 /usr/lib, /usr/local/lib) is now checked last. 777 See the node `Libraries/Search' in the manual for full details. 778 779* A single `include' directive can now specify more than one makefile to 780 include, like this: 781 include file1 file2 782 You can also use shell file name patterns in an `include' directive: 783 include *.mk 784 785* The default directories to search for included makefiles, and for 786 libraries specified with `-lNAME', are now set by configuration. 787 788* You can now use blanks as well as colons to separate the directories in a 789 search path for the `vpath' directive or the `VPATH' variable. 790 791* You can now use variables and functions in the left hand side of a 792 variable assignment, as in "$(foo)bar = value". 793 794* The `MAKE' variable is always defined as `$(MAKE_COMMAND) $(MAKEOVERRIDES)'. 795 The `MAKE_COMMAND' variable is now defined to the name with which make 796 was invoked. 797 798* The built-in rules for C++ compilation now use the variables `$(CXX)' and 799 `$(CXXFLAGS)' instead of `$(C++)' and `$(C++FLAGS)'. The old names had 800 problems with shells that cannot have `+' in environment variable names. 801 802* The value of a recursively expanded variable is now expanded when putting 803 it into the environment for child processes. This change was made for 804 compatibility with Unix make. 805 806* A rule with no targets before the `:' is now accepted and ignored. 807 This change was made for compatibility with SunOS 4 make. 808 We do not recommend that you write your makefiles to take advantage of this. 809 810* The `-I' switch can now be used in MAKEFLAGS, and are put there 811 automatically just like other switches. 812 813Version 3.61 814 815* Built-in rules for C++ source files with the `.C' suffix. 816 We still recommend that you use `.cc' instead. 817 818* If a recipe is given too many times for a single target, the last one 819 given is used, and a warning message is printed. 820 821* Error messages about makefiles are in standard GNU error format, 822 so C-x ` in Emacs works on them. 823 824* Dependencies of pattern rules which contain no % need not actually exist 825 if they can be created (just like dependencies which do have a %). 826 827Version 3.60 828 829* A message is always printed when Make decides there is nothing to be done. 830 It used to be that no message was printed for top-level phony targets 831 (because "`phony' is up to date" isn't quite right). Now a different 832 message "Nothing to be done for `phony'" is printed in that case. 833 834* Archives on AIX now supposedly work. 835 836* When the recipes specified for .DEFAULT are used to update a target, 837 the $< automatic variable is given the same value as $@ for that target. 838 This is how Unix make behaves, and this behavior is mandated by POSIX.2. 839 840Version 3.59 841 842* The -n, -q, and -t options are not put in the `MAKEFLAGS' and `MFLAG' 843 variables while remaking makefiles, so recursive makes done while remaking 844 makefiles will behave properly. 845 846* If the special target `.NOEXPORT' is specified in a makefile, 847 only variables that came from the environment and variables 848 defined on the command line are exported. 849 850Version 3.58 851 852* Suffix rules may have dependencies (which are ignored). 853 854Version 3.57 855 856* Dependencies of the form `-lLIB' are searched for as /usr/local/lib/libLIB.a 857 as well as libLIB.a in /usr/lib, /lib, the current directory, and VPATH. 858 859Version 3.55 860 861* There is now a Unix man page for GNU Make. It is certainly not a 862 replacement for the Texinfo manual, but it documents the basic 863 functionality and the switches. For full documentation, you should 864 still read the Texinfo manual. Thanks to Dennis Morse of Stanford 865 University for contributing the initial version of this. 866 867* Variables which are defined by default (e.g., `CC') will no longer be 868 put into the environment for child processes. (If these variables are 869 reset by the environment, makefiles, or the command line, they will 870 still go into the environment.) 871 872* Makefiles which have recipes but no dependencies (and thus are always 873 considered out of date and in need of remaking), will not be remade (if they 874 were being remade only because they were makefiles). This means that GNU 875 Make will no longer go into an infinite loop when fed the makefiles that 876 `imake' (necessary to build X Windows) produces. 877 878* There is no longer a warning for using the `vpath' directive with an explicit 879pathname (instead of a `%' pattern). 880 881Version 3.51 882 883* When removing intermediate files, only one `rm' command line is printed, 884 listing all file names. 885 886* There are now automatic variables `$(^D)', `$(^F)', `$(?D)', and `$(?F)'. 887 These are the directory-only and file-only versions of `$^' and `$?'. 888 889* Library dependencies given as `-lNAME' will use "libNAME.a" in the current 890 directory if it exists. 891 892* The automatic variable `$($/)' is no longer defined. 893 894* Leading `+' characters on a recipe line make that line be executed even 895 under -n, -t, or -q (as if the line contained `$(MAKE)'). 896 897* For recipe lines containing `$(MAKE)', `${MAKE}', or leading `+' characters, 898 only those lines are executed, not the entire recipe. 899 (This is how Unix make behaves for lines containing `$(MAKE)' or `${MAKE}'.) 900 901Version 3.50 902 903* Filenames in rules will now have ~ and ~USER expanded. 904 905* The `-p' output has been changed so it can be used as a makefile. 906 (All information that isn't specified by makefiles is prefaced with comment 907 characters.) 908 909Version 3.49 910 911* The % character can be quoted with backslash in implicit pattern rules, 912 static pattern rules, `vpath' directives, and `patsubst', `filter', and 913 `filter-out' functions. A warning is issued if a `vpath' directive's 914 pattern contains no %. 915 916* The `wildcard' variable expansion function now expands ~ and ~USER. 917 918* Messages indicating failed recipe lines now contain the target name: 919 make: *** [target] Error 1 920 921* The `-p' output format has been changed somewhat to look more like 922 makefile rules and to give all information that Make has about files. 923 924Version 3.48 925 926Version 3.47 927 928* The `-l' switch with no argument removes any previous load-average limit. 929 930* When the `-w' switch is in effect, and Make has updated makefiles, 931 it will write a `Leaving directory' message before re-executing itself. 932 This makes the `directory change tracking' changes to Emacs's compilation 933 commands work properly. 934 935Version 3.46 936 937* The automatic variable `$*' is now defined for explicit rules, 938 as it is in Unix make. 939 940Version 3.45 941 942* The `-j' switch is now put in the MAKEFLAGS and MFLAGS variables when 943 specified without an argument (indicating infinite jobs). 944 The `-l' switch is not always put in the MAKEFLAGS and MFLAGS variables. 945 946* Make no longer checks hashed directories after running recipes. 947 The behavior implemented in 3.41 caused too much slowdown. 948 949Version 3.44 950 951* A dependency is NOT considered newer than its dependent if 952 they have the same modification time. The behavior implemented 953 in 3.43 conflicts with RCS. 954 955Version 3.43 956 957* Dependency loops are no longer fatal errors. 958 959* A dependency is considered newer than its dependent if 960 they have the same modification time. 961 962Version 3.42 963 964* The variables F77 and F77FLAGS are now set by default to $(FC) and 965 $(FFLAGS). Makefiles designed for System V make may use these variables in 966 explicit rules and expect them to be set. Unfortunately, there is no way to 967 make setting these affect the Fortran implicit rules unless FC and FFLAGS 968 are not used (and these are used by BSD make). 969 970Version 3.41 971 972* Make now checks to see if its hashed directories are changed by recipes. 973 Other makes that hash directories (Sun, 4.3 BSD) don't do this. 974 975Version 3.39 976 977* The `shell' function no longer captures standard error output. 978 979Version 3.32 980 981* A file beginning with a dot can be the default target if it also contains 982 a slash (e.g., `../bin/foo'). (Unix make allows this as well.) 983 984Version 3.31 985 986* Archive member names are truncated to 15 characters. 987 988* Yet more USG stuff. 989 990* Minimal support for Microport System V (a 16-bit machine and a 991 brain-damaged compiler). This has even lower priority than other USG 992 support, so if it gets beyond trivial, I will take it out completely. 993 994* Revamped default implicit rules (not much visible change). 995 996* The -d and -p options can come from the environment. 997 998Version 3.30 999 1000* Improved support for USG and HPUX (hopefully). 1001 1002* A variable reference like `$(foo:a=b)', if `a' contains a `%', is 1003 equivalent to `$(patsubst a,b,$(foo))'. 1004 1005* Defining .DEFAULT with no deps or recipe clears its recipe. 1006 1007* New default implicit rules for .S (cpp, then as), and .sh (copy and 1008 make executable). All default implicit rules that use cpp (even 1009 indirectly), use $(CPPFLAGS). 1010 1011Version 3.29 1012 1013* Giving the -j option with no arguments gives you infinite jobs. 1014 1015Version 3.28 1016 1017* New option: "-l LOAD" says not to start any new jobs while others are 1018 running if the load average is not below LOAD (a floating-point number). 1019 1020* There is support in place for implementations of remote command execution 1021 in Make. See the file remote.c. 1022 1023Version 3.26 1024 1025* No more than 10 directories will be kept open at once. 1026 (This number can be changed by redefining MAX_OPEN_DIRECTORIES in dir.c.) 1027 1028Version 3.25 1029 1030* Archive files will have their modification times recorded before doing 1031 anything that might change their modification times by updating an archive 1032 member. 1033 1034Version 3.20 1035 1036* The `MAKELEVEL' variable is defined for use by makefiles. 1037 1038Version 3.19 1039 1040* The recursion level indications in error messages are much shorter than 1041 they were in version 3.14. 1042 1043Version 3.18 1044 1045* Leading spaces before directives are ignored (as documented). 1046 1047* Included makefiles can determine the default goal target. 1048 (System V Make does it this way, so we are being compatible). 1049 1050Version 3.14. 1051 1052* Variables that are defaults built into Make will not be put in the 1053 environment for children. This just saves some environment space and, 1054 except under -e, will be transparent to sub-makes. 1055 1056* Error messages from sub-makes will indicate the level of recursion. 1057 1058* Hopefully some speed-up for large directories due to a change in the 1059 directory hashing scheme. 1060 1061* One child will always get a standard input that is usable. 1062 1063* Default makefiles that don't exist will be remade and read in. 1064 1065Version 3.13. 1066 1067* Count parentheses inside expansion function calls so you can 1068 have nested calls: `$(sort $(foreach x,a b,$(x)))'. 1069 1070Version 3.12. 1071 1072* Several bug fixes, including USG and Sun386i support. 1073 1074* `shell' function to expand shell commands a la ` 1075 1076* If the `-d' flag is given, version information will be printed. 1077 1078* The `-c' option has been renamed to `-C' for compatibility with tar. 1079 1080* The `-p' option no longer inhibits other normal operation. 1081 1082* Makefiles will be updated and re-read if necessary. 1083 1084* Can now run several recipes at once (parallelism), -j option. 1085 1086* Error messages will contain the level of Make recursion, if any. 1087 1088* The `MAKEFLAGS' and `MFLAGS' variables will be scanned for options after 1089 makefiles are read. 1090 1091* A double-colon rule with no dependencies will always have its recipe run. 1092 (This is how both the BSD and System V versions of Make do it.) 1093 1094Version 3.05 1095 1096(Changes from versions 1 through 3.05 were never recorded. Sorry.) 1097 1098------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1099Copyright (C) 1988, 1989, 1990, 1991, 1992, 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 1997, 11001998, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 11012010 Free Software Foundation, Inc. This file is part of GNU Make. 1102 1103GNU Make is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the 1104terms of the GNU General Public License as published by the Free Software 1105Foundation; either version 3 of the License, or (at your option) any later 1106version. 1107 1108GNU Make is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but WITHOUT ANY 1109WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR 1110A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the GNU General Public License for more details. 1111 1112You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License along with 1113this program. If not, see <http://www.gnu.org/licenses/>. 1114