2 files changed, 10 insertions, 1 deletions

diff --git a/lisp/ChangeLog b/lisp/ChangeLog
index 6a14d7e8256..f348ce0733b 100644
--- a/lisp/ChangeLog
+++ b/lisp/ChangeLog
@@ -1,3 +1,8 @@
+2001-02-06  Eli Zaretskii  <eliz@is.elta.co.il>
+
+        * progmodes/make-mode.el (makefile-mode): Set SYNTAX-BEGIN member
+        of `font-lock-defaults' to `backward-paragraph' rather than nil.
+
 2001-02-06  Andrew Innes  <andrewi@gnu.org>
 
         * makefile.w32-in (EMACS): Use $(THISDIR) to make emacs.exe path
diff --git a/lisp/progmodes/make-mode.el b/lisp/progmodes/make-mode.el
index adeec830ab4..72e2e863a76 100644
--- a/lisp/progmodes/make-mode.el
+++ b/lisp/progmodes/make-mode.el
@@ -587,7 +587,11 @@ makefile-special-targets-list:
 
   ;; Font lock.
   (make-local-variable 'font-lock-defaults)
-  (setq font-lock-defaults '(makefile-font-lock-keywords))
+  (setq font-lock-defaults
+        ;; SYNTAX-BEGIN set to backward-paragraph to avoid slow-down
+        ;; near the end of a large buffer, due to parse-partial-sexp's
+        ;; trying to parse all the way till the beginning of buffer.
+        '(makefile-font-lock-keywords nil nil nil backward-paragraph))
 
   ;; Add-log.
   (make-local-variable 'add-log-current-defun-function)