Message-ID: <35FEDB9C.3665@which.net>
Date: Tue, 15 Sep 1998 22:26:52 +0100
From: John Barber <john DOT andy DOT barber AT which DOT net>
Reply-To: john DOT andy DOT barber AT which DOT net
MIME-Version: 1.0
To: djgpp AT delorie DOT com
Subject: gnu make 3.77 in djgpp binary distribution
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Dear djgpp expert,

********************************************
SUMMARY: using gnu make 3.77 with the ordinary DOS COMMAND.COM shell,
quotes may be necessary on a command line to stop the 'make' interfering
with the parameters before they are passed to the command. However, the
quotes themselves are not stripped before the parameters are passed to
the command: I think they probably should be.
********************************************
DETAIL:

I have a query about the gnu make 3.77 of which I have downloaded the
binary from the djgpp collection and am attempting to use to drive the
build of the DOS-platform version of a multi-platform product I am
working on.

I don't know whether what I am seeing is a bug or not - it relates to
the handling of command line parameters passed to an invoked command,
and I'm not very familiar with how this might be expected to work on a
Unix system...

Anyway, I am trying to tell MAKE to call the Microsoft C compiler to
compile my C programs (I'm using this compiler because the product has
been tested using it and is stable - I'm merely trying to tidy up the
build procedure to make life easier for whoever may need to work on the
package in the future. I find Microsoft NMAKE pretty useless, and
PolyMake would be good but runs out of memory). I'm using the normal DOS
COMMAND.COM shell. I have a rule like:

.c.obj:
	cl $(IFLG) $<

where IFLG might be, say,
	-Zi -IG:\IPL\DEV\V32-044A\INCLUDE -Od -FRG:\IPL\DEV\SBR\

This doesn't work because the when the cl command is executed it
receives a copy of the parameters with the back-slashes stripped out.
MAKE echoes the command line to the screen prior to invoking the command
showing the back-slashes intact, but CL complains it can't find (e.g.)
G:IPLDEVV32-044ASOURCEABC1.C (the dependencies also have paths with
backslashes in.)

I guess this is due to the fact that djgpp is trying to add value to the
COMMAND.COM shell so that UNIX-aware users can use UNIX shell-like
features they are used to - the readme file says this is done in the
system() library function, I believe.

I expected to be able to fix this problem simply by quoting the
arguments, e.g.:
	cl '$(IFLG)' '$<'
or
	cl '$(IFLG) $<'

However, although this fixes the disappearing backslashes, I find the
quotes themselves do not seem to be stripped from the parameters passed
to the CL command - and CL does not like this one bit - it can live with
quotes around the file-name of the file to be compiled, but not around
the options.

Shouldn't the quotes be stripped by the shell-like processing in the
system() library function? (By the way, there are no quote characters
internally within the options string to foul things up).  

I guess I could work around the problem by using forward slashes in my
paths (I think CL is happy with these), but these paths come from
environment variable which may be used in DOS batch files for ordinary
DOS commands, so this would be inconvenient.

I found I could work around the problem by using:
	echo $(shell cl $(IFLG) $<)
which passes the parameters to CL just fine, but the output has its
line-ends blanked out (as the documentation says it will), which is a
nuisance.

Interestingly, if I try to test various formats by replacing the CL
command with 'echo', then the output looks as I thing it ought - the
problem doesn't show up in this case.

So what I'm doing for now is to put all the in the environment:
	export CL=$(IFLG)

and then just
	cl '$<'

(CL can pick up its options from the CL environment variable)

However, I'd like to get to the bottom of the problem, in case it comes
up again as I extend the scope of the makefile I am working on.

Please excuse me if all the above is some kind of simple
misunderstanding on my part - I'm dealing with a lot of stuff here that
I'm not very familiar with. Any help or advice you are able to give, I
will be most grateful for. 

Regards, John