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

From: Junio C Hamano <[email-masked]>
Date: Mon, 08 Apr 2024 16:34:21 -0700

Paul Smith <[email-masked]> 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.