make/TODO.private
1997-08-27 20:30:54 +00:00

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-*-Indented-Text-*-
GNU Make TODO List
------------------
This list comes both from the authors and from users of GNU make.
They are listed in no particular order!
Also, I don't gaurantee that all of them will be ultimately deemed "good
ideas" and implemented. These are just the ones that, at first blush,
seem to have some merit (and that I can remember).
However, if you see something here you really, really want, speak up.
All other things being equal, I will tend to implement things that seem
to maximize user satisfaction.
Also, this list doesn't include things which I'm pretty sure would
require serious, fundamental change to GNU make; those things belong on
the mythical "Make 4.0" list. I admit, that line can be somewhat fuzzy :)
* Per-target variable definitions (a la SunOS make's ":=" feature, but
note the syntax here will definitely be different!)
* Multi-token pattern rule matching (allow %1/%2.c : %1/obj/%2.o, etc.)
* More robust clock skew detection algorithm.
* Provide MAKETARGETS and MAKEVARIABLES variables, containing the
names of the targets and variables defined in the makefile.
* If the user asks for parallelization, rebuild any "include"'d files
in parallel as well (helps esp. when there are many .d files to be
built).
* Allow variables/functions to expand to other make rules which are
then interpreted, with newlines handled correctly.
* More intelligent submake handling when doing parallel makes:
currently each submake gets a "-j 1" option. It would be good if
make was smart enough to give some/all its slots to the submake
(esp. if there is no other rule that can be run by the parent in
parallel, a common situation). Doing this perfectly might be too
hard, but something less than perfect is certainly possible.
* Option to check more than timestamps to determine if targets have
changed (MD5 checksumming?)
* Some sort of operating-system independent way of handling paths
would be outstanding, so makefiles can be written for UNIX, VMS,
DOS, MS-Windows, Amiga, etc. with a minimum of specialization.