From owner-freebsd-doc Fri Nov 24 06:51:59 1995 Return-Path: owner-doc Received: (from root@localhost) by freefall.freebsd.org (8.6.12/8.6.6) id GAA22840 for doc-outgoing; Fri, 24 Nov 1995 06:51:59 -0800 Received: from nomad.osmre.gov (nomad.osmre.gov [192.243.129.244]) by freefall.freebsd.org (8.6.12/8.6.6) with ESMTP id GAA22835 for ; Fri, 24 Nov 1995 06:51:56 -0800 Received: (from gfoster@localhost) by nomad.osmre.gov (8.6.11/8.6.9) id JAA06492; Fri, 24 Nov 1995 09:51:22 -0500 Date: Fri, 24 Nov 1995 09:51:22 -0500 From: Glen Foster Message-Id: <199511241451.JAA06492@nomad.osmre.gov> To: doc@freebsd.org Subject: Useful addition to handbook? Sender: owner-doc@freebsd.org Precedence: bulk Yes, I know submissions are more appropriate than requests! :-) One thing I don't understand and haven't been able to find much information on is documentation on the structure and capabilities of the 'bmake' source code build system in FreeBSD. Of course, one of the most significant features of the OS is that all sources are available and it is relatively easy to build and install them. There appears to be a fair amount of information available on make itself but I can't find any on FreeBSD implementation details (except the Makefiles themselves but they are tough sledding without sufficient background). I would like to know things like what targets do what in the various make files in various places, what can go wrong, and how does one best recover. Here are a few questions I have after (partially) trying to install a system from source: if a 'make world' falls over for some reason or another, can one restart with a plain old 'make' or must one go back to square one and do a 'make world' (which, to my understanding, wipes all the work done up to that point)? Does 'make world' also install libraries and binaries or is a 'make install' required? What are all those weird make targets in /usr/src/etc/Makefile? It would also be helpful to have a reference for make's cryptic error exits. I'm sure that programmers know what "Error code 1" means and how to fix it but there must be many of us who don't even know where to look to decipher it (at least I hope I'm not the only one!) Perhaps an entry in Part 4, section 14 "Staying current with FreeBSD" would encourage someone who understands this to clarify it for those of us who are clue challenged (but want to become better informed). I am aware of the distinct possibility that I may be way off base on this and that the whole thing is perfectly documented somewhere. If so, I apologize for wasting everybody's time with this message. Glen Foster