From 9e365e4d0a461785860266812d42f47000a31bae Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: Marc Herbert Date: Tue, 28 Jan 2020 10:52:26 -0800 Subject: docs: explain the purpose of order-only deps for generated files [skip ci] The documentation of "order-only" dependencies is limited and their various purposes are especially not clear. See issue #6391 for a recent example, search the internet for many more. So mention the particular purpose here while making the documentation barely longer. --- docs/markdown/Reference-manual.md | 11 ++++++----- 1 file changed, 6 insertions(+), 5 deletions(-) (limited to 'docs/markdown/Reference-manual.md') diff --git a/docs/markdown/Reference-manual.md b/docs/markdown/Reference-manual.md index f4fa89e..ae6d1c5 100644 --- a/docs/markdown/Reference-manual.md +++ b/docs/markdown/Reference-manual.md @@ -547,11 +547,12 @@ libraries (`.so`, `.dll`, etc) will be linked. With the Ninja backend, Meson will create a build-time [order-only dependency](https://ninja-build.org/manual.html#ref_dependencies) on -all generated input files, including unknown files. For all input -files (generated and non-generated), Meson uses the [dependency -file](https://ninja-build.org/manual.html#ref_headers) generated by -your compiler to determine when to rebuild sources. The behavior is -similar for other backends. +all generated input files, including unknown files. This is needed +to bootstrap the generation of the real dependencies in the +[depfile](https://ninja-build.org/manual.html#ref_headers) +generated by your compiler to determine when to rebuild sources. +Ninja relies on this dependency file for all input files, generated +and non-generated. The behavior is similar for other backends. Executable supports the following keyword arguments. Note that just like the positional arguments above, these keyword arguments can also -- cgit v1.1