[Coco] OT: Unix/Linux Makefile question

[KnudsenMJ at aol.com]

In a message dated 2/3/05 9:49:37 AM Eastern Standard Time,  
linville at tuxdriver.com writes:

You may  want to investigate VPATH.  I think it does the opposite of
what you  want, but it may be workable for your purpose.  It still
drops objects  in the local dir, but pulls the sources from  elsewhere.



You're right.  I waded thru the info pages, and sure enough, VPATH is  good 
for finding sources elsewhere but insists that the "targets" (object files)  be 
in the current dir.
 
I found a related keyword, GPATH, that promised to do it right -- it can  
look for *any* desired files in other listed dirs.  But it just plain  didn't 
work -- no effect at all.  I had moved my up-to-date *.o to a  subdir, and 
pointed GPATH at it, and nope -- Make insisted on remaking all my  *.o right there 
in pwd, cuz it didn't see nuthin', hear nuthin', etc.
 
I even upgraded my implicit rule
%.o: %.c
to allow for the moved *.o, but it wasn't needed, since the GPATH search  
failed to engage.
 
Just love "features" that don't work.  At least they didn't break  anything.  
But I've commented them back out of the Makefile for now.
 
Anyway, thanks to everyone for trying.  There seems to be all kinds of  
support for putting *sources* elsewhere -- many features to do that -- but not  the 
reverse.  Oh well, been wading thru two dozen *.o for years, these good  old 
Bean Boots can take it a few more :-)
--Mike K.