I just stumbled across an issue where a project fails to compile using automake and silent-rules with $V being set to sth. else other than '1' or '0'.
This is because of the following resulting Makefile code when using silent rules: AM_V_P = $(am__v_P_$(V)) am__v_P_ = $(am__v_P_$(AM_DEFAULT_VERBOSITY)) am__v_P_0 = false am__v_P_1 = : This breaks builds in environments such as e.g. the cross-compiling framework OpenWrt - which also uses $(V), however with values other than 1/0 (e.g. V=99, V={c,w,s}, etc.). The way automake behaves here it claims that variable for its exclusive use. I don't mind automake using $(V), however if using such generic variable names, please don't make projects fail when $(V) is set to something other than 1 or 0. My proposal would be to enable verbose output, if $(V) is set to anything but '0' and to disable otherwise ($V is unset / set to '0'). Cheers mirko