Bug 253523 - make: VPATH works, .PATH does not
Summary: make: VPATH works, .PATH does not
Status: New
Alias: None
Product: Base System
Classification: Unclassified
Component: bin (show other bugs)
Version: 11.4-STABLE
Hardware: Any Any
: --- Affects Only Me
Assignee: freebsd-bugs (Nobody)
URL:
Keywords:
Depends on:
Blocks:
 
Reported: 2021-02-15 00:38 UTC by Mikhail Teterin
Modified: 2021-02-15 00:38 UTC (History)
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Description Mikhail Teterin freebsd_committer freebsd_triage 2021-02-15 00:38:55 UTC 
I'd like to be able to specify the actual location of the sources on make's command line.

Doing it with

    make .PATH=/path/to/sources

does not work. But

    make VPATH=/path/to/sources

works. The manual page labels VPATH as deprecated -- advising use of .PATH instead. Clearly, .PATH is not a complete replacement.

However, .PATH is also frowned upon by the manual page...

I suppose, I can always add a line like:

   .PATH: ${THEPATH}

then invoke make with THEPATH=/path/to/sources -- but why is this any better?