All is well: $ cat Makefile all:z.bak %.bak:; $ make make: Nothing to be done for `all'. Until we add a %: $ cat Makefile all:z.bak %.bak:%; $ make make: *** No rule to make target `z.bak', needed by `all'. Stop. Suddenly it can't find the rule anymore. Or prints the wrong message. Indeed, instead of % use %.bak:some_file_that_exists; No problem. But %.bak:some_file_that_does_not_exist; then make says it can't find the rule to make target z.bak, when it should say it can't find the rule to make target some_file_that_does_not_exist, which it does when one uses z.bak:some_file_that_does_not_exist;
Maybe the story lies on Info page "10.8 Implicit Rule Search Algorithm" and maybe -d showing "Avoiding implicit rule recursion." is a clue. Anyway, I'm not one of the 0.1% of the population to be able to comprehend all these things. GNU Make 3.81 _______________________________________________ Bug-make mailing list Bug-make@gnu.org http://lists.gnu.org/mailman/listinfo/bug-make
