Subject: Re: [PATCH] SKIP_DASHED_BUILT_INS: respect `config.mak`

From: Junio C Hamano <[email-masked]>
Date: Fri, 22 Jan 2021 13:50:35 -0800

Johannes Schindelin <[email-masked]> writes:

>> By the way, I wonder if we can (semi-)automate looking for such a
>> mistake in the future.  Does a simple rule like:
>>
>>     No variable that has "Define X if you want to distim the doshes"
>>     at the beginning of the Makefile must be referenced before we
>>     include config.mak
>>
>> work?
> ...
> The only thing that sticks out in this output is that we use SHELL_PATH a
> couple times before including config.mak.
> ...
> And I don't think that this hack of mine can be converted into a robust
> check that we'd want to run to verify that the Makefile does not use
> constants before they are potentially defined in config.mak,
> unfortunately.

Oh, I wasn't expecting all the work be done by you in your busy
schedule ;-) The primary thing I was looking for was to sanity check
the idea of the general rule.  Implementation of it can start as
something the reviewers would keep in their heads.  A script with
false positives that authors can use to be reminded may come next.

We do not have to jump to the perfection from day one, in other
words.