Make vs. source control

[Howard Johnson]

[munch]
>	The problem of overwriting source files if the SCCS parent file
>	was modified can be helped a great deal by changing the $(GET) lines
>	in rules.c from:
>
>	"\t$(GET) $(GFLAGS) -p $< > $*.c",
>
>	to:
>
>	"\t$(GET) $(GFLAGS) $<",
>
>	and let 'get' check if the file is writable. I have done this and
>	prefer it to the original.

The only problem with this suggestion is that $*.c is not necessarily in the
current directory, and 'get' places it's g-file in the current directory.
I'll admit that the first construct is dangerous, but there may be a better
fix for the problem:

	"\ttest -w $*.c || $(GET) $(GFLAGS) -p $< > $*.c",

>>	Wednesday:  Source Administrator makes global
>>		change to headers of all project source
>>		files.
>>	Thursday: Programmer `make's a new version
>>		and wipes out two day's work.

It could be noted that this problem may not have occurred if the source
administrator had communicated with the person who had the file out for
editing (look for p-files) and the programmer keeps a local copy of
files he edits for which he hasn't used 'get -e'.

	Howard Johnson	..!ut-sally!cyb-eng!howard