Should GNU make 3.81 be required?

[Tim Bell]

Hi Kelly:

> So I'm trying to work out some jdk7 Makefile performance improvements
> and everything is working out fine on Linux and OpenSolaris...
> Then I discover that the GNU make features I'm using are seriously
> broken in GNU make 3.80 and I need 3.81 to get around it. :^(

That's painful.

> Also it turns out that GNU make 3.78.1 and 3.79 are definitely out
> of the question because they don't even implement some the make
> functions I need. I suspect many people still use GNU make 3.78.1
> or 3.79.
> 
> So do I continue on, and assume a new requirement to upgrade to GNU make
> 3.81 because of these changes (on all platforms), or do I go back to the
> drawing board and try and make the changes work with 3.80, or even
> 3.78.1 ???

If we can find a Windows/Cygwin GNU make v3.81 or better that works, I'd
vote for updating the requirement to 3.81 for all.

I am currently using Cygwin GNU make v3.80 on Windows due to the
later Cygwin builds not supporting MS-DOS drive letters or paths:

  http://hg.openjdk.java.net/jdk7/jdk7/raw-file/tip/README-builds.html#gmake

Tim