infinite loop in make for src/unix (PR#2477)

jvv@cs.umd.edu writes:

Full_Name: John Van Voorhis
Version: 1.6.2
OS: SunOS 5.8
Submission from: (NULL) (128.8.130.192)


While running initial 'make' everything went fine until src/unix. At

it kept entering and exiting src/unix without doing anything. I fixed

by deleting the dependencies on Makefile for the Makedeps and R targets.

I am using gnu Make 3.79, gcc 2.95.3, Solaris SunOS5.8 on an UltraSparc.

I double checked that I had found the problem by rerunning make with the
distributed makefile restored, but the looping behavior did not recur.

When I ran make check, everything semed to be OK.

Hmm, I don't see that with Solaris 9 and the same tools. I've seen the
looping behaviour a couple of times earlier, typically triggered by
make actions of the type

        for ( i in $SUBDIRS ) ; do cd $i ; make ; done

if one of the cd commands fails silently you end up calling make in the
current directory...

Could you please see if you can reproduce the effect in a clean
directory? Notice that to avoid running Sun's make, you need

export MAKE=gmake
gmake

Also, the shell might play a part so tell us what yours is. And
whether you are building in the source tree or in a separate build
directory.

I've had this kind of problem (but I don't remember if it was with R) when

workstation and file server's clocks were not syncronized closely enough. I
think make builds a makefile in src, which is immediately out of date

the clock skew, but I'm not sure why the workstation clock enters the
calculation.