Re: [Qemu-devel] [RFC PATCH] build-sys: add make 'help' target

["Marc-André Lureau" <mlureau@redhat.com>]

Hi

----- Original Message -----
> On 20 June 2016 at 16:19,  <marcandre.lureau@redhat.com> wrote:
> > From: Marc-André Lureau <marcandre.lureau@redhat.com>
> >
> > Add a make 'help', to print a summary of the main Makefile targets.
> > The format is loosely inspired by Linux make 'help' output.
> >
> > Signed-off-by: Marc-André Lureau <marcandre.lureau@redhat.com>
> > ---
> >  Makefile | 33 +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
> >  1 file changed, 33 insertions(+)
> >
> > diff --git a/Makefile b/Makefile
> > index 53e4119..c6bf3d6 100644
> > --- a/Makefile
> > +++ b/Makefile
> > @@ -666,3 +666,36 @@ endif
> >  -include $(wildcard *.d tests/*.d)
> >
> >  include $(SRC_PATH)/tests/docker/Makefile.include
> > +
> > +.PHONY: help
> > +help:
> > +
> > +       @echo  'Cleaning targets:'
> > +       @echo  '  clean           - Remove most generated files but keep
> > the config'
> > +       @echo  '  distclean       - Remove all generated files'
> > +       @echo  '  dist            - Build a distributable tarball'
> 
> There's a cute trick which will let us put these help strings
> next to the actual makefile targets, which might make it easier
> for us to remember to update and add them: you have a rune
> something like
> help:    ## Show this help.
>         @fgrep -h "##" $(MAKEFILE_LIST) | fgrep -v fgrep | sed -e 's/\\$$//'
>         |
> sed -e 's/##//'
> 
> and then you can annotate all your targets with their doc strings:
> 
> check:     ## Run all tests
> 
> Idea from https://gist.github.com/prwhite/8168133
> 
> We'd need to elaborate it somewhat to add categories, but you get the
> general idea.
> 
> Does this seem useful, or like overkill ?

Interesting, in fact I use a similar trick in some of my shell scripts:
https://github.com/elmarco/virgl-ci/blob/master/virgl-test.sh#L258

But tbh, I don't think it's so great, it's a bit overkill indeed.