Hi,

This pertains to the Makefile generated by perl when building Glib-Object-Introspection-0.050.
It's the same problem with version 4.2.1 and version 4.4.1 of GNU make. (I haven't tested with any other versions.)

For Windows only, the Makefile.PL directly inserts a few lines into the generated Makefile.
One of those lines is: 
PATH += ;build

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The intention is to append ";build" to $ENV{PATH} but it instead appends " ;build".
This means that my PATH, which originally terminated in "...D:\msys64\mingw64\bin" then terminates in "...D:\msys64\mingw64\bin ;build".
Hence the (crucial) "D:\msys64\mingw64\bin" folder is no longer in my PATH - causing baffling load_file failures during 'gmake test'.

Notably, my original PATH doesn't terminate with a ';'. While that is perhaps not a good defensive programming approach, I don't believe it's a bug ?
Or, perhaps, the bug is in the instruction being provided by the Makefile.PL. Here is the relevant excerpt from the G-I-O-0.050 Makefile.PL: 
$inherited =~ s/($target)/.IMPORT: PATH\nPATH += ;build\n.EXPORT: PATH
+\n$1/;

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which results in this entry in the generated Makefile: 
.IMPORT: PATH
PATH += ;build
.EXPORT: PATH
test_dynamic :: subdirs-test_dynamic
    $(FULLPERLRUN) "-MExtUtils::Command::MM" "-MTest::Harness" "-e" "u
+ndef *Test::Harness::Switches; test_harness($(TEST_VERBOSE), '$(INST_
+LIB)', '$(INST_ARCHLIB)')" $(TEST_FILES)

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Cheers,
Rob

PS I tried the obvious and naive fix of changing "PATH += ;build" to "PATH+=;build" but the errant space is still being included in the PATH.

PPS Working around the problem is as simple as ensuring that my original path terminates with a semi-colon.The PATH then ends up terminating with "...D:\msys64\mingw64\bin; ;build", which seems to not be a problem.

In reply to A bug in GNU make ? by syphilis

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