Locating the buildfile

The Proc backend can be configured to use different tools for performing syntax checks. For example, it can use direct compiler call to syntax check a perl script or a call to make for a more complicated case of a C/C++ source. The general idea is that simple files, like Perl scripts and HTML pages, can be checked by directly invoking a corresponding tool. Files that are usually more complex and generally used as part of larger projects, might require non-trivial options to be passed to the syntax check tool, like include directories for C++. The latter files are syntax checked using some build tool, like Make or Ant.

All Make configuration data is usually stored in a file called Makefile. To allow for future extensions, Flymake uses a notion of buildfile to reference the project configuration file.

Special function, flymake-proc-find-buildfile is provided for locating buildfiles. Searching for a buildfile is done in a manner similar to that of searching for possible master files. In case there’s no build file, the syntax check is aborted.

Buildfile values are also cached.