make(1) vs spaces

utzoo!henry utzoo!henry
Mon Dec 7 20:14:52 AEST 1981


If you have a makefile like this (the tab is written \t for clarity,
note the space preceding it):

	foo: foo.o
	 \tcc -n -s ...

make(1) will produce an EXTREMELY cryptic message.  It can take a long
time to track this one down, because the line LOOKS right.  Perhaps
make should consider spaces and tabs equivalent, but I am not sure this
is a good idea;  if it had been done that way from the beginning, ok,
but as a retrofit I wonder how many makefiles would break.  Failing
this, the error reporting definitely could stand some more smarts.



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