tree 1498493d163bdb67b59538c82b1275e78a467683
parent 0df57d90bfd6bb94831e70f4bcb4b7af784066cf
author Dirk Gouders <dirk@gouders.net> 1531905216 +0200
committer Masahiro Yamada <yamada.masahiro@socionext.com> 1532123432 +0900

kbuild: if_changed: document single use per target limitation

Users of if_changed could easily feel invited to use it to divide a
recipe into parts like:

a: prereq FORCE
	$(call if_changed,do_a)
	$(call if_changed,do_b)

But this is problematic, because if_changed should not be used more
than once per target: in the above example, if_changed stores the
command-line of the given command in .a.cmd and when a is up-to-date
with respect to prereq, the file .a.cmd contains the command-line for
the last command executed, i.e. do_b.

When the recipe is then executed again, without any change of
prerequisites, the command-line check for do_a will fail, do_a will be
executed and stored in .a.cmd.  The next check, however, will still see
the old content (the file isn't re-read) and if_changed will skip
do_b, because the command-line test will not recognize a change.  On
the next execution of the recipe the roles will flip: do_a is OK but
do_b not and it will be executed.  And so on...

Signed-off-by: Dirk Gouders <dirk@gouders.net>
Signed-off-by: Masahiro Yamada <yamada.masahiro@socionext.com>