All the Perl that's Practical to Extract and Report

make(1): the perfect program

brian_d_foy on 2004-12-01T01:51:51

$ make mistakes
make: don't know how to make mistakes. Stop


(Mileage may vary according to which make you have.)

gmake--

Dom2 on 2004-12-01T08:23:16

% make mistakes
make: *** No rule to make target `mistakes'.  Stop.

Re:gmake--

ziggy on 2004-12-01T17:32:44

Nope. This is a BSDism. It's probably inherited from the AT&T days (which omitted the make: and Stop), but I'm not certain about that.

This is an old joke, but make mistakes is certainly a new take on it. Here are some older ones:

$ make love
make: don't know how to make love. Stop

$ make war
make: don't know how to make war. Stop

$ make fire
make: don't know how to make fire. Stop

$ make "it better"
make: don't know how to make it better. Stop

$ make "it worse"
make: don't know how to make it worse. Stop

Re:gmake--

Dom2 on 2004-12-02T00:30:03

Very odd.
% cat /etc/debian_version
testing/unstable
% make --version
GNU Make 3.80
Copyright (C) 2002  Free Software Foundation, Inc.
This is free software; see the source for copying conditions.
There is NO warranty; not even for MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A
PARTICULAR PURPOSE.

Those dastardly GNU people have been stealing BSD code! Call in the license Nazis! :-)

-Dom