Re: Use LN_S instead of "ln -s" in Makefile

Ashwin Agrawal <aagrawal(at)pivotal(dot)io> writes:
> In general, the variable LN_S is 'ln -s', however, LN_S changes to 'cp
> -pR' if configure finds the file system does not support symbolic
> links.
> I was playing with 'ln' for some other reason where I symbolic linked
> it to '/bin/false'. That revealed the failure for
> src/backend/Makefile. Greping for 'ln -s' revealed three places it's
> used. Attaching the patch to fix the same.

Hm. So, these oversights are certainly bugs in narrow terms. However,
they've all been like that for a *long* time --- the three instances
you found date to 2005, 2006, and 2008 according to "git blame".
The complete lack of complaints shows that nobody cares. So I think
a fairly strong case could be made for going the other way, ie
s/$(LN_S)/ln -s/g and get rid of the configure-time cycles wasted in
setting up that variable. Otherwise I fear somebody will "break"
it again soon, and it will stay "broken" for another 15 years till
someone happens to notice. We have better things to do than spend
our time maintaining such nonfunctional differences.

regards, tom lane