[bug #65533] gmake-4.4.1 has a performance regression: at least the nwchem project now builds much slower

"Paul D. Smith" <[email protected]> Fri, 16 Jan 2026 14:28:37 -0500 (EST)

Newsgroups	gmane.comp.gnu.make.bugs
Message-ID	<[email protected]>

Follow-up Comment #9, bug #65533 (group make):

Just to be clear the real culprit here is NOT recursively expanded variables.
Those are fine (or anyway, they have the same costs as they've always had).

The real culprit is *exported* variables.  In general I find that exporting
variables from makefiles should be avoided, because they provide confusing
"action at a distance" behavior (some export command many included makefiles
away, is causing havoc on random recipes throughout the build).

If you need a variable to be exported, I usually try to do it directly in the
recipe, where feasible.

If you really do need some "general context" variables exported, then it is a
very good idea to make those exported variables simply expanded (:=) rather
than recursively expanded.

Of course that isn't to minimize the annoyance factor of this change in
behavior.


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