Re: mingw32-make does not set $(RM) to "del"

Yongwei Wu <[email protected]> Mon, 7 Jan 2013 19:48:59 +0800
Newsgroups gmane.comp.gnu.make.windows
Message-ID <CADs46icbasEci4OPB1ZhsauS2qWHh1kjpA1gXMvj2dVKTJkdcw@mail.gmail.com>
On 6 January 2013 11:51, Eli Zaretskii <[email protected]> wrote:
>> Date: Sun, 6 Jan 2013 08:27:37 +0800
>> From: Yongwei Wu <[email protected]>
>> Cc: [email protected]
>>
>> undefining $(RM) will break certain makefiles
>
> Can you show them and point to projects that use them?

No, I do not know popular projects that do this (they use more formal
methods). I do use $(RM) this way (in personal and proprietary
projects) to minimize the Makefile difference between Unix and Windows
platforms.

For a personal project, you can check:

https://github.com/adah1972/libunibreak/blob/master/src/Makefile.gcc

Maybe it is just informal, or even foolish. I doubt I am the only one
doing this.

Anyway, my point is that undefining RM does not bring benefits. If
make.exe cannot find rm.exe, it will issue a clear error message. If
RM is undefined, I do not think the message will be more friendly. I
think the principle of least surprise should apply here.

Best regards,

Yongwei

-- 
Wu Yongwei
URL: http://wyw.dcweb.cn/