[tex-k] [tex-live] make = gmake?

[Reinhard Kotucha]

>>>>> "Olaf" == Olaf Weber <olaf at infovore.xs4all.nl> writes:

  > Martin Schröder writes:
  >> 2006/7/26, Martin Schröder <martin at oneiros.de>:

  >>> Agreed. But does it still work with non-gmake?

  >> I almost forgot: pdfTeX does need gmake allready. We got a bug
  >> report from an OpenBSD user (who used stock bsd make) to that
  >> effect.

  > So does that mean that we might as well move to gmake wholesale,
  > or does it show that we should try to be make-agnostic?

If pdfTeX can be compiled with many variants of make on many operating
systems but not with BSD make, I fear that it means that BSD make is
incompatible with the original SysV make.

The question is whether it's worthwhile to support all the variants of
make.  I suppose that the OpenBSD people solved this problem within a
few minutes by installing gmake.  You can invest a lot of time to make
the Makefiles work on OpenBSD but if gmake can be installed easily I'm
sure that nobody honors your effort.

Can a web2c distribution be compiled with lex and yacc on all
platforms or aren't flex and bison required anyway?
If people have to install flex and bison, why not gmake?

Relying on gmake has some advantages: There is only one program, hence
there is only one manpage.  gmake provides additional features and it
seems that at least Martin wants to use them.

If somebody prefers that every variant of make can be used I don't
understand why we can live with the fact that flex and bison are
required at least on some systems. 

>>>>> "Frank" == Frank Küster <frank at kuesterei.ch> writes:

  >> Wouldn't it be possible to have a GNUMakefile and a Makefile in

  > Can autoconf do this? And if it can maintain two versions of
  > Makefiles, can it also generate the right version (i.e. either
  > gmake or make)?

Maybe.  But that means that additional stuff has to be maintained.  If
gmake can be installed easily on every system you can invest as much
time as you want and nobody honors your work.

To summarize the advantages of gmake:  One program, one manpage, no
ugly workarounds in autoconf, everything is easier to maintain, and
Martin will be happy.

Regards,
  Reinhard

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