Thread

Re: Introduce ENDLIST to terminate multiline makefile lists

Chao Li <li.evan.chao@gmail.com> — 2025-12-29T02:57:14Z

On Mon, Dec 29, 2025 at 10:08 AM Michael Paquier <michael@paquier.xyz>
wrote:

> On Mon, Dec 29, 2025 at 09:43:30AM +0800, Chao Li wrote:
> > Note that since ENDLIST is defined in Makefile.global.in, this change
> > requires rerunning ./configure.
> >
> > [1] https://postgr.es/m/DF6HDGB559U5.3MPRFCWPONEAE@jeltef.nl
>
> FWIW, I don't see an advantage in this proposal, and it has the
> disadvantage of more maintenance if one needs to create a new list.
> The current state of things is simpler.


For example, a list is:
```
OBJS = \
   a.o \
   b.o
```

Now we need to add c.o, then:
```
OBJS = \
   a.o \
   b.o \ <== this line needs to add tailing \
   c.o <== add this new line
```
there are two lines of changes.

With the $(ENDLIST), we just add an single line:
```
OBJS = \
  a.o \
  b.o \
  c.o \    <== only adding this new line, a single line of diff
  $(ENDLIST)
```

Could you please explain what more maintenance would be?

I do get the argument about C enums, but there is a difference between a
> grammar rule trick and
> something allowed in a language specification.
>
>
I didn't mention C enums. How did you get that? I think I only mentioned
C/C++ projects because they used Makefile for building.

Best regards,
--
Chao Li (Evan)
HighGo Software Co., Ltd.
https://www.highgo.com/