Re: [PATCH] Makefile(s): avoid recipe prefix in conditional statements

[Junio C Hamano <gitster@pobox.com>]

Paul Smith <psmith@gnu.org> writes:

> Just to note that this usage clearly contravenes the documentation,
> which states that preprocessor statement lines cannot begin with a TAB.
> It was a bug that this was allowed by the GNU Make parser.
>
> I understand that in many projects (Linux, probably Git :)) if the
> documentation and behavior disagreed then the documentation would be
> changed, not the behavior.

If a bug is left in a released version long enough, it becomes a
feature your users depend upon.  We saw that happen to us, I am sure
the mantra "don't break userspace" the kernel project had comes from
the same place.

I am not sure what benefits are gained by the existing users with
this change to ease fixing some parser bug (I didn't bother to see
your bug tracker) so I cannot judge if the benefit outweighs the
cost of them all having to scramble and adjust to the new world
order.