[thechao]

Maybe... 'prefer'. I'm more confident that a really conservative Makefile will build my code correctly.

My issue with -MD was not that it didn't provide precise (and correct!) dependencies; my issue was that the build system's most mysterious breakages are when modules (and dependencies) are changed. In that case, there are three situations:

1. Your .d files are out-of-date, and thus your build is broken;

2. You have to have a policy of "updating the .d files"; or,

3. Your makefile has to be .d savvy.

The last option is the one I see most often taken, but with rare success.

> it makes correctness guarantees that Make cannot (e.g., .o file replacement is atomic).

I wish Make wasn't so entrenched.