Date: Sat, 23 Apr 94 10:56:04 JST
From: Stephen Turnbull <turnbull AT shako DOT sk DOT tsukuba DOT ac DOT jp>
To: rri!potter AT vtserf DOT cc DOT vt DOT edu
Cc: djgpp AT sun DOT soe DOT clarkson DOT edu
Subject: Trapping DOS commands in make [was: make problem (probably go32 prob)]

A couple of possible solutions (actually one solution, various
implementations).
    Since various shells are in use (COMMAND.COM, 4DOS, MS_SH200,
etc.) and many people use FSF commands (ls, echo, cat) etc, this
feature ought to be customizable.  I know of two programs that
customize in this way.  One is Quarterdeck's OPTIMIZE QEMM
configuration utility.  It has a few files called *.CMD which list
internal commands so that OPTIMIZE realizes they are internal and
doesn't try to manipulate them in CONFIG.SYS and AUTOEXEC.BAT.  That
would be a start for 4DOS.
    MS_SH200 (an implementation of the Korn shell for MS DOS) has a
much more complete facility.  I'm not sure if the code is public.
This program allows you to specify not only what your external command
set is but also the calling conventions and how to pass long command
lines.  (BTW: For those of you who think this is the solution to all
your argument problems, it's not.  It is very easy to find makefiles
that cause MS_SH200 and either Make 3.69 or Morten's GMAKE370 to
choke.  Any FSF program, for example.  X11R5 is full of them too.)  In
any case, its config files would be a place to look.
    Disclaimer: I have no intention of doing anything whatsoever about
the above suggestions.
    --Steve