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Utilities in Makefiles
should not modify the source directory in any way.
Try to make the build and installation targets, at least (and all their subtargets) work
correctly with a parallel make.
Utilities in Makefiles
Write the Makefile commands (and any shell scripts, such as configure) to run in sh,
not in csh. Don’t use any special features of ksh or bash.
The configure script and the Makefile rules for building and installation should not
use any utilities directly except the following:
cat cmp cp diff echo egrep expr false grep install-info
ln ls mkdir mv pwd rm rmdir sed sleep sort tar test touch true
The compression program, gzip, can be used in the dist rule.
Stick to the generally supported options for these programs. For example, don’t use
mkdir -p, convenient as it may be, because most systems don’t support it. The
Makefile rules for building and installation can also use compilers and related
programs, but should do so using make variables so that the user can substitute
alternatives.
The following are some of the programs.
ar bison cc flex install ld ldconfig lex
make makeinfo ranlib texi2dvi yacc
Use the following make variables:
$(AR) $(BISON) $(CC) $(FLEX) $(INSTALL) $(LD) $(LDCONFIG) $(LEX)
$(MAKE) $(MAKEINFO) $(RANLIB) $(TEXI2DVI) $(YACC)
When you use ranlib or ldconfig, you should make sure nothing bad happens if the
system does not have the program in question. Arrange to ignore an error from that
command, and print a message before the command to tell the user that failure of this
command does not mean a problem. The AC_PROG_RANLIB autoconf macro can help
with this problem.
If you use symbolic links, you should implement a fallback for systems that don’t
have symbolic links.
The following utilities also use the make variables.
chgrp chmod chown mknod
It is acceptable to use other utilities in Makefile portions (or scripts) intended only for
particular systems where you know those utilities to exist.
Standard Targets for Users
All GNU programs should have the following targets in their Makefiles:
Red Hat GNUPro Toolkit Using make / GNUPro Development Tools ■ 207