[Python-Dev] addressing distutils inability to track file dependencies

[Martin v. Loewis]

Skip Montanaro <skip@pobox.com> writes:

> May I humbly propose that this task should be automated?  Tools like
> makedepend have been invented and reinvented many times over precisely
> because it's too error-prone for humans to maintain that information
> manually.

They also have been invented and reinvented because the previous tool
would not work, just like the next one wouldn't.

makedepend is particularly bad: you need to reinvoke makedepend
manually whenever you change a file, which is as easily to forget as
updating dependency lists whenever you change a file. In addition,
makedepend has problems finding out the names of header files used.

That said, feel free to contribute patches that automate this task.

Regards,
Martin