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Diffstat (limited to 'PLANS/rm-f-without-args.txt')
| -rw-r--r-- | PLANS/rm-f-without-args.txt | 40 |
1 files changed, 40 insertions, 0 deletions
diff --git a/PLANS/rm-f-without-args.txt b/PLANS/rm-f-without-args.txt new file mode 100644 index 000000000..b940fc3e9 --- /dev/null +++ b/PLANS/rm-f-without-args.txt @@ -0,0 +1,40 @@ +Summary +------- + +POSIX will say in a future version that calling "rm -f" with no argument +is OK; and this sensible behaviour seem to be already very widespread in +"the wild" (and possibly lacking only on those systems that are well on +their way to obsolescence). + +Se we'd like to simplify several automake-generated "cleaning" rules +accordingly, to get rid of the awful idiom: + + test -z "$(VAR)" || rm -f $(VAR) + +See automake bug#10828. + +For Automake 1.14 (DONE) +------------------------ + +Add a temporary "probe check" in AM_INIT_AUTOMAKE that verifies that +the no-args "rm -f" usage is supported on the system configure is +being run on; complain loudly if this is not the case, and tell the +user to report the situation to us. + +For Automake 2.0 +---------------- + +Make any failure in the configure-time probe check introduced by the +previous point fatal; and in case of failure, also suggest to the user +to install an older version of GNU coreutils to work around the +limitation of his system (this version should be old enough not to +be bootstrapped with Automake 2.0, otherwise the user will face a +bootstrapping catch-22). + +In all our recipes, start assuming "rm -f" with no argument is OK; +simplify and de-uglify the recipes accordingly. + +For Automake 3.0 +---------------- + +Remove the runtime probe altogether. |