[Python-Dev] Suggestion: stopping to trust os mtimes

[Moshe Zadka]

On Mon, 5 Jun 2000, Peter Funk wrote:

> Greg Stein:
> > He does have a point, but I think the wrong solution :-)
> > 
> > While the clock may be monotonically increasing on one system, it isn't
> > always the case when things like NFS come into play.
> 
> That is a well known and common trap.  Don't use NFS for Software
> development unless you've read and understood RFC 868. ;-)

"Make"'s philosphy for basing the decision on which files need to be
remade on the timestapmps is not necessarily the best -- but the user can
replace mkae if it doesn't "do the right thing".

Since Python takes on some of Make's roles (regenrating files only if
those need to be regenerated), it is subject to the same problems. So it
is Python's fault, and that's where the problem should be fixed.

--
Moshe Zadka <moshez@math.huji.ac.il>
http://www.oreilly.com/news/prescod_0300.html
http://www.linux.org.il -- we put the penguin in .com