autoloads only generated on every 2nd make

autoloads only generated on every 2nd make

[Tassilo Horn]

Hi all,

I use the Gnus git version which I updated daily with

  cd gnus/
  git pull && make

Since recently, when I start emacs I get the error

  File error: Cannot open load file, no such file or directory,
  gnus-load

and indeed, there's no gnus/lisp/gnus-load.el.

When I run make a second time, the autoloads are generated just fine.
With another make, gnus-load.el is deleted again but autoloads aren't
regenerated.

The problem is that gnus/lisp/Makefile's default "all total" target
requires the targets clean-some and gnus-load.el.  When I do that on the
command line, I first get

  % make clean-some gnus-load.el
  rm -f *.elc gnus-load.el auto-autoloads.* custom-load.*
  lispdir="/home/horn/share/emacs/site-lisp/gnus" srcdir=. emacs -batch -q -no-site-file -l ./dgnushack.el -f dgnushack-make-cus-load .
  ...
  Generating autoloads for assistant.el...
  ...
  Saving file /home/horn/Repos/el/gnus/lisp/gnus-load.el...
  ...

which is all fine.  But when I do it again, I get

  % make clean-some gnus-load.el
  rm -f *.elc gnus-load.el auto-autoloads.* custom-load.*
  make: 'gnus-load.el' is up to date.

Huh?  How can gnus-load.el by up to date?  You've just deleted it...

I can't see any changes in Gnus' Makefile.ins, so it might also be a
problem with GNU make itself.  That has been updated to 4.1 on 6th
November which could be the beginning of the problem although I feel
that it started more recently than that...

Any ideas welcome!

Bye,
Tassilo

Re: autoloads only generated on every 2nd make

[Lars Ingebrigtsen]

Tassilo Horn <tsdh@gnu.org> writes:

>   % make clean-some gnus-load.el
>   rm -f *.elc gnus-load.el auto-autoloads.* custom-load.*
>   make: 'gnus-load.el' is up to date.
>
> Huh?  How can gnus-load.el by up to date?  You've just deleted it...

Huh.  That does seem odd.

> I can't see any changes in Gnus' Makefile.ins, so it might also be a
> problem with GNU make itself.  That has been updated to 4.1 on 6th
> November which could be the beginning of the problem although I feel
> that it started more recently than that...

I'm not seeing this myself, and I don't really understand the autoconf
stuff in depth...

-- 
(domestic pets only, the antidote for overdose, milk.)
  bloggy blog http://lars.ingebrigtsen.no/

Re: autoloads only generated on every 2nd make

[Tassilo Horn]

Lars Ingebrigtsen <larsi@gnus.org> writes:

>>   % make clean-some gnus-load.el
>>   rm -f *.elc gnus-load.el auto-autoloads.* custom-load.*
>>   make: 'gnus-load.el' is up to date.
>>
>> Huh?  How can gnus-load.el by up to date?  You've just deleted it...
>
> Huh.  That does seem odd.
>
>> I can't see any changes in Gnus' Makefile.ins, so it might also be a
>> problem with GNU make itself.  That has been updated to 4.1 on 6th
>> November which could be the beginning of the problem although I feel
>> that it started more recently than that...
>
> I'm not seeing this myself, and I don't really understand the autoconf
> stuff in depth...

This is still absolute reproducible here even with a complete fresh
checkout.  "make clean-some gnus-load.el" in gnus/lisp/ alternates
between

--8<---------------cut here---------------start------------->8---
rm -f *.elc gnus-load.el auto-autoloads.* custom-load.*
lispdir="/home/horn/share/emacs/site-lisp/gnus" srcdir=. emacs -batch -q -no-site-file -l ./dgnushack.el -f dgnushack-make-cus-load .
Loading cus-dep...
Directory .
Generating cus-load.el...
Generating cus-load.el...done
lispdir="/home/horn/share/emacs/site-lisp/gnus" srcdir=. emacs -batch -q -no-site-file -l ./dgnushack.el -f dgnushack-make-auto-load .
lispdir="/home/horn/share/emacs/site-lisp/gnus" srcdir=. emacs -batch -q -no-site-file -l ./dgnushack.el -f dgnushack-make-load
Generating /home/horn/tmp/gnus/lisp/gnus-load.el...
Compiling /home/horn/tmp/gnus/lisp/gnus-load.el...
--8<---------------cut here---------------end--------------->8---

and

--8<---------------cut here---------------start------------->8---
rm -f *.elc gnus-load.el auto-autoloads.* custom-load.*
make: 'gnus-load.el' is up to date.
--8<---------------cut here---------------end--------------->8---

Oh, what works is if I rename the gnus-load.el target to gnus-load.elx.
It seems that my make version behaves differently than previous versions
when a target is named like a file...

I'll go investigating with the make guys.

Bye,
Tassilo

Re: autoloads only generated on every 2nd make

[Tassilo Horn]

Tassilo Horn <tsdh@gnu.org> writes:

> I'll go investigating with the make guys.

Ok, the problem was that make uses a file cache which does not get
updated if a recipe deletes files that have nothing to do with the
target.  Thus with "make clean-some gnus-load.el" make's cache still
thinks gnus-load.el exists and is up-to-date if it has been so before
clean-some.

I've committed a fix which uses recursive make calls for the
gnus-load.el target so that this is always executed with a file cache
reflecting the actual situation on the file system [1].

Bye,
Tassilo

[1] Oh, and sorry for the second commit completing the ChangeLog entry
    and the non-ChangeLog formatted commit message in the first commit.