Re: [COMMITTERS] pgsql: Remove too-smart-for-its-own-good optimization of not overwriting

Robert Haas <robertmhaas@gmail.com> writes:
> On Mon, Jan 4, 2010 at 9:34 PM, Tom Lane <tgl@postgresql.org> wrote:
>> Log Message:
>> -----------
>> Remove too-smart-for-its-own-good optimization of not overwriting the output
>> files when they haven't changed. �This confuses make because the build fails
>> to update the file timestamps, and so it keeps on doing the action over again.

> This doesn't seem like a good idea.

The original code was a bad idea, written by someone who was a
self-acknowledged non expert on make.  The way that you avoid
unnecessary recompilations is by not changing the input files,
not by breaking the file timestamp relationships that make depends
on to work sanely.
        regards, tom lane