link: "Recursive Make Considered Harmful"

[Andrew Hacking]

On Tue, 2005-01-11 at 21:29, Christopher Vance wrote:

> I think building would be more maintainable if the shell stuff was up
> front to set parameters, etc., before doing any file construction, and
> then never got invoked again in all the myriad recursions.

Yes, this is needed for correctness so that the dependency graph can be
pre-determined before the build/construction phase.

The real problem with variable assignments via shell invocations is that
they can take on a value at the time of use, which can be in-determinant
and even change based on the current state of the build/construction.

-Andrew Hacking