[build2] [bug] Targets not built if not used by the first target appearing in a buildfile

[Boris Kolpackov]

Klaim - Joël Lamotte <mjklaim at gmail.com> writes:

> > From what I learned recently, this is actually the behaviour of `make`
> > right?

It is an improved variant of what make does.


> I don't know much of it's details, I never had to write a makefil from
> scratch so far (I've used tons of build systems but not make directly).

As someone wisely put it, "those who don't understand make are bound to
reinvent it, poorly". What we are doing with build2 is essentially fixing
the parts of make's design that 40 years later turned out not to be such
great ideas.

> I still feel this is a weird exception to have a target built automatically
> but not the others (or any target actually), it feels non-uniform.

The desire is:

1. To be able to have targets that are not built by default.

2. For single-target buildfiles (most common case) not to have the
   burden of specifying the "default" target explicitly.

Boris